The privately owned media are relatively diverse and include independent media outlets such as the TV channel TVN, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and the news site Onet.pl. The former government turned the public media, especially the TVP group, into propaganda tools and took control of the PolskaPress network of local newspapers through its acquisition by the majority state-owned oil company Orlen.  

Since a coalition led by Donald Tusk took control of the government early 2024, verbal attacks and SLAPP suits against privately owned media by the government have decreased. The public media are now the subject of a political battle between the new government, which is implementing a fragile reform, and the institutions controlled by the previous ruling party, the PiS, which are trying to prevent it. 

Although the constitution guarantees freedom of the press and the right to information, the former government tried to restrict these rights through specific legislation under pretexts such as combating the influence of Russian espionage. The current government has continued to restrict media operations on the border with Belarus, where dozens of immigrants, out of the hundreds who tried to enter Poland, died. The National Broadcasting Council, the media regulator, has tried to influence editorial content using the judicial pretext of the need to protect “reasons of state.” Charges such as “insulting” certain state institutions and defamation are still punishable by imprisonment.  

Public broadcasting is funded by the state, while the privately owned media rely on subscription models, thanks to the relatively large size of the Polish market. Independent media overcame a failed attempt to weaken them by means of a special tax on their advertising revenue. State advertising is allocated without sufficient transparency. State-funded “local government newspapers” often compete with the independent media in the advertising market. 

The growing polarisation of society has resulted in an increase in verbal attacks against journalists. Conservatives try to discourage journalists from covering LGBTQI+ or gender-related issues, and blasphemy remains punishable by imprisonment. Independent media nonetheless enjoy strong support from a sizeable part of the population that, for, example, protested against the broadcasting law concerning foreign ownership in the media, which would have forced the country’s main television group, TVN, to change ownership. Had the president not vetoed the bill, it could have allowed the previous government to take control of the group.

After reaching a peak in 2020 during the “Women’s Strike”, the level of violence – coming from both the police and extremist groups opposed to this movement – has decreased. The attacks on journalists showed, however, that law enforcement authorities cannot effectively protect them or guarantee their rights during protests. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, journalists reporting on stories relating to Russia have become particularly vulnerable.