Sejm to amend law on non-profit media
By : Anna KociNska
The Sejm has taken steps to amend the current media law by establishing a new category of broadcaster one with a social conscience.
By adding a social category to existing commercial and public broadcasting companies, the Sejm hopes to give a free rein to various associations and churches wanting to spread social or religious messages around Poland. So far, only the Catholic Radio Maryja fits into the category.
Under the amended law, which will be discussed by the Senate and then sent to President Aleksander Kwasniewski for approval, social broadcasters will be exempt from broadcasting concession fees, but will be banned from broadcasting advertisements.
Legislators said fee exemptions will help small local broadcasters who cannot afford them. But small media players such as student radio stations and local government broadcasters said the new measures are unnecessary.
"When we applied for the concession seven years ago, we would have welcomed the existence of such a category, but now it's too late," said Bogdan Ingersleben from one of Poland's 11 student radio stations, Radio Akademickie Krakow (RAK).
Today, almost all broadcasters on Poland's media market, including public media, live on advertising revenue.
Most broadcasters in Poland started their operations in the early 1990s, when the media market was created from scratch after 50 years of communism. At that time there were two categories of broadcasters public, such as Telewizja Polska (TVP), and commercial, such as Polsat private television. Those two categories have been the basis of the media market until now. "Today radio stations like ours would have no chance on the media market without ads," Ingersleben said.
RAK was launched in 1994 and for the past three years has been financed entirely by ad revenue. "There are about 11 similar student radio stations in Poland and I know that several more will apply for the concession," Ingersleben said. "But they need ads to survive as no university would agree to finance them."
But according to legislator Tomasz Welnicki, a Solidarity Election Action (AWS) deputy and member of the media parliamentary committee, the amended law is a new opportunity that some broadcasters may choose in time.
"Nobody has to become a social broadcaster, it's not a must," he said. "But if you're a small local broadcaster and you don't belong to some national network, such as Agora's for instance, you have no chance to attract advertisers." He wouldn't explain how such social broadcasters would find financing.
Meanwhile, according to Joanna Stempien, press spokeswoman for Juliusz Braun, chairman of the National Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV), the amended law could be applied in two existing cases. While she agreed that only Radio Maryja could accept the new category created by the Sejm, since it broadcasts no ads and lives on donations from its listeners, she said the Franciscan order, which holds a broadcasting concession for TV Niepokalanow, could also become a social broadcaster.
"Two days ago, the Franciscans applied to the council (KRRiTV) for a concession to broadcast, via satellite, TV Niepokalanow 2, which would be a thematic religious channel," she said. "They said in the application they want to run a non-profit channel. If they agreed to broadcast no ads, the channel could become a social broadcaster in the future." They want to extend their current broadcasting concession for TV Niepokalanow, which would enable them to broadcast more ads and change the current name to TV Puls, a new commercial channel to be launched in March.
But according to Danuta Waniek, a Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) press spokesman, the amended law could serve in political campaigns. "Radio Maryja already has representatives in the Sejm (elected from AWS electoral lists) and a new law would only guarantee a privileged position that could be used in future political campaigns."
In practice, though, according to AWS' Welnicki, Radio Maryja's status won't change once it decides to become a social broadcaster. "It will still broadcast with no ads, so I can't see particular benefits resulting from the amended law," he said.
