Poland report released: broadcasting at crucial point
EUMAP and NMP announce the launch of another report in the series, TV across Europe: Follow-up Reports 2008. The report on Poland offers a detailed analysis of the Polish electronic media, which have reached a crucial moment of their development.
In Poland, as also in other countries monitored for this project, the public service broadcaster has been subject to a process of re-politicization during the past two or three years. The limited achievements in transforming the state broadcaster, which were described in the original Television Across Europe report (2005), have been halted or even rolled back.
Although it still commands more than half of the country’s audience and advertising revenue, Polish Television (TVP, Telewizja Polska) has seen a fall in its income from the licence fee – due to inefficient collection – and is losing its younger, more educated and wealthier viewers. The Government wants to abolish the fee by the end of 2008; if Parliament approves this radical step, TVP’s dependence on direct State funding will almost certainly increase, with obvious risks to its already questionable independence.
The report also states that private TV stations are flourishing, launching new channels and preparing for the digital switch-over scheduled for 2012.
The main dangers to journalistic ethics were found to be the politicisation of public service media and the commercialisation of all media.
