Media owned by Polish state oil firm reject opposition adverts over “left-wing values”

A media firm owned by state energy giant Orlen has informed two opposition groups that it cannot publish their campaign adverts ahead of next week’s elections because of their “left-wing values”. One of the groups is not left-wing.

Polska Press, which publishes hundreds of newspapers and websites, including the main local titles in many regions of Poland, was bought by Orlen in 2021.

At the time, the opposition and many commentators warned that the energy firm – whose CEO, Daniel Obajtek (pictured above with the prime minister), is close to the ruling party – would use its new outlets to provide coverage favouring the government.

„Of course I want Law and Justice to win [this year’s elections], I make no secret of that,” said Daniel Obajtek, the head of state oil firm Orlen, when asked if he would be making donations to the ruling PiS party for its campaign https://t.co/IHnUBGRHfg

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 7, 2023

In a statement published Wirtualne Media, an industry news service, a representative of Polska Press’s board said that “the publisher has decided that the leftist values and understanding of the Polish national interest represented by The Left/Third Way are incompatible with [our] line”.

The Left (Lewica) is Poland’s second-largest opposition group, with 42 MPs, while Third Way (Trzecia Droga) is a recently formed coalition between the Polish People’s Party (PSL), an agrarian, centre-right party, and Poland 2050 (Polska 2050), a centrist party.

Polska Press’s position was also confirmed in a letter published yesterday by Marek Kacprzak, spokesman for The Left’s parliamentary caucus. It showed the firm rejecting an election advert The Left had wanted to publish in one of its newspapers.

Poland 2050 also published the same letter it received from Polska Press. The party accused the firm of acting not in the national interest or its own interests, but in the interests of the ruling party.

Jeszcze chwilę możecie kłamać, obrażać i odmawiać reklam, ale nie zatrzymacie zmiany, którą niesie Trzecia Droga. Nie odbierzecie Polakom długopisów, którymi za 9 dni zastąpią was rządem współpracy, inwestycji i pojednania, który gwarantujemy. pic.twitter.com/oN8QVPsv2r

— Szymon Hołownia (@szymon_holownia) October 6, 2023

The media group, however, argues that Poland’s press law gives publishers and editors the right to refuse advertisements if their content or form is inconsistent with the programme or nature of the publication.

But a number of commentators have criticised the decision. “Orlen Censorship Department,” tweeted Dariusz Ćwiklak from Newsweek Polska.

“This is crazy,” wrote Rafał Mrowicki, a journalist from news website Wirtualna Polska, who noted that Polska Press titles regularly promote the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. “Is this the freedom of the press that Daniel Obajtek declared when Orlen took over the publishing house?”

However, in a statement issued today, Polska Press rejected “false claims…[of] censorship” and said that it “demands an immediate cessation of disseminating such false information”.

Oświadczenie w sprawie bezpodstawnych zarzutów @__Lewica o rzekomą cenzurę w @Polska_Press⤵️ https://t.co/SWHrWny7r6

— Portal i.pl (@portal_ipl) October 6, 2023

Meanwhile, Adam Bodnar, an election candidate for another opposition group, Civic Coalition (KO), noted that in 2021, when he was serving as Poland’s commissioner for human rights, he had tried to stop Orlen’s takeover of Polska Press.

At the time, Bodnar argued that the takeover could “transform the free press…into propaganda bulletins” and “will be an unacceptable restriction on freedom of the press and consequently of freedom of expression and of obtaining and disseminating information”.

In a tweet yesterday, Bodnar sarcastically noted that his arguments had been rejected by the head of the state consumer protection office, who found that Orlen’s takeover would not impinge on media freedom.

Dedykuję ten news Tadeuszowi Chróstnemu, Prezesowi UOKiK. Z pewnością przejęcie Polska Press przez PKN Orlen było neutralne dla wolności mediów😖 https://t.co/1W2qO3zbJD

— Adam Bodnar (@Adbodnar) October 5, 2023

After completing its takeover of Polska Press, Orlen replaced a large number of the group’s editors with figures more closely aligned with the ruling party.

Earlier this year, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund put Orlen under observation over concerns that the company is responsible for human rights violations through its ownership of media outlets.

Last month, an article that presented opposition criticism of a government minister disappeared from the website of one of Polska Press’s titles. No official reason has been given, but an inside source told another media outlet that the newspaper was pressured by the ruling party to remove the article.

In March this year, Obajtek said that he “of course wants PiS to win” the elections. He has donated to the ruling party’s election campaign, as have many other senior managers at Orlen and other state-owned firms. The firm has also been accused of artificially lowering fuel prices to help PiS’s re-election bid.

An article that presented opposition criticism of the government has disappeared from the website of a newspaper owned by a state energy firm

No reason has been given but an inside source says there was pressure from the ruling party to remove the article https://t.co/WcbMJGzdh3

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 5, 2023

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Main image credit: Krystian Maj/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.