Senators for sale
By : Anna Kocinska
The Senate's Health and National Economy Committees caused a storm last week when they softened legislation recently passed by the Sejm banning all forms of outdoor beer advertising and limiting alcohol advertising in the electronic media.
The committees proposed amendments on outdoor advertising of beer, which included the possibility that at least 20% of a billboard would have to be covered by information on the ban of alcohol sales to minors. They also proposed that advertising of alcohol on TV should be permitted after 8 p.m.
The Sejm passed a draft law last month prohibiting outdoor advertising of non-alcoholic beer and restricting TV beer ads to an 11 p.m.-6 a.m. time slot.
In a story published before the Senate's proposed amendments, one of Poland's top dailies, Rzeczpospolita, accused the Senate of buckling under pressure from lobbyists in the beer and advertising industries.
A group of senators reacted to the story by calling for more stringent controls on their colleagues who were behind the amendments.
"It's a hot topic today, everybody is talking about it," said Ludwik Dorn, a deputy from the parliamentary group of the Movement for the Reconstruction of Poland (ROP) and Center Agreement (PC), on Friday. "I talked to senators and I think most of them are frightened (by the press reports) and many might withdraw (from supporting the amendments)."
According to Rzeczpospolita, lobbyists promised senators who would support the amendments free billboards for an outdoor electoral campaign.
"It's kind of a veiled corruption," said Antoni Kaminski, head of Transparency International Polska. "It's normal that people have interests that they try to promote, but in Poland this entire sphere is out of control."
In October 1999, the World Bank released a report on corruption in Poland and said that one particularly damaging area is the financing of political parties in exchange for promises to block or push through legislation.
Instances of lobbyists paying bribes to politicians is on the rise, according to the report, with the price for blocking amendments to laws increasing to about $3 million from $500,000 in 1992.
"I receive signals from the Sejm about instances, which I can't prove, of ostentatious bribery," Kaminski said. "Lobbying at the Sejm means offering bribes. Businesses create close links with parties and that's against the interest of this country."
Krzysztof Rut, manager for corporate affairs in beer producer Zywiec Group, told the Business Journal last week that he was invited to an open meeting of the Senate's Health Committee. "It was the first time ever that legislators invited us, although we've been calling for a long time to be admitted to debates about our own future," Rut said. "I see nothing wrong in lobbying and if papers present lobbyists as manipulators I call it a war (of interests)."
According to Rut, the press lobbyists are interested in the bill prepared by the Sejm. "If the Sejm's version of the bill comes to life and the press is the only advertising medium for beer, it will mean that most ad budgets would go to press publications," Rut said.
Dorn said, however, that press publications about lobbying practices in the Senate were accurate. "I talked to senators and they told me the press didn't exaggerate," he said. "It's true that it's in the interests of the press to cover all that, but on the other hand the press is playing its role and already there are senators who will hesitate before supporting the amendments."
Senators who defended their decisions last week said the arguments of lobbyists had been convincing. "The Senate is not a group of deputies from some small gmina, it's a group of people elected from all over Poland and I don't believe you can put such dramatic pressure on such a representation," said Ewaryst Federowicz, client service director at Grey advertising agency. "I trust that they are sensible people and the proposed amendments simply go in the right direction."
According to AWS' Kaminski, what's really at stake is money. "But it's interesting that lobbyists didn't come to the Sejm (when it was working on the new law)," he said. "And I'm pretty sure that putting pressure on some deputies could have worked."
If amendments proposed by the Senate's committees are rejected and the legislation proposed by the Sejm becomes law, the outdoor ad sector and electronic media will suffer, according to market insiders. Media Watch, which monitors outdoor ad spending, said beer companies spent zl. 70.7 million ($16.1 million) on outdoor ads last year, more than 10% of the outdoor sector's turnover of zl. 630.4 million ($143.3 million).
At the same time, market researcher Expert Monitor said breweries spent zl. 200 million ($46 million) not including discounts on TV, radio and press in 2000. At press time, the future of the amendments to be voted at the Senate was still unknown.
