A GIANT UNMASKED
LIDIA DUDKIEWICZ, THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF ‘NIEDZIELA’
It is unnecessary to try to convince anybody that who has got money, has got authority. In our Polish country one can clearly see an ideological and commercial insanity. It is connected with an invasion of particular ideologies , imposed by people owning enormous amounts of money, and also with pressures exerted on politics by making mass media dependent on the foreign capital. At present in Poland most mass media serve to particular political, ideological and financial interests. They are focused on a few rich media enterprises which do not care about the criteria of the truth or objectivism, instead, they care about profits and ideological motifs of companies owners, who also realize somebody else’s political or their parties’ interests. Today we register that nearly 80 per cent of newspapers published in Poland are in the hands of foreign media giants, including even 90 per cent of regional newspapers. 75 per cent of this media foreign capital belong to the Germans.
Owners of foreign companies are realizing their interests in our country more and more insolently and openly. It is to such a large extent, that one can unmask these actions of media steered by them, even in the eyes of viewers. Recently, it has turned out that the German-Swiss company is the source of instructions addressed to journalists writing in newspapers, which are read by Poles. A strong conflict was caused by revelation of a magazine which Mark Dekan, a chief of Ringier Axel Springer, addressed to Polish journalists employed in his company, publishing, among the others, ‘Fact’, ‘Newsweek’, ‘Forbes’, and also portal Onet.pl. This is a particular evidence of pressure of the German-Swiss control panel and its influence on the line of media functioning in Poland. A dean evaluates the actions of the Polish government in his instruction and particularly indicates journalists what they must ‘suggest’ their readers, among the others, how to write in Poland about the Polish government and its strategy, for example, in reference to the issue of Europe of two speeds. So, this is an attempt of interference into issues of the supreme rank, which refer to the foreign policy pursued by the Polish authority. The loud instruction of the media company owner Ringier Axel Springer is an unquestioned evidence that the capital has got nationality and one must really respect it.
It is necessary for the Polish government to act systemically so that media published in Polish language would be Polish, not German, Swiss, or American. We see that the Germans want to have control over the Polish government. We cannot allow Poland for it, as much as the Germans do not allow for it in their own country. Here is a particular example. When in 2005 the American-British investor purchased the German journal ‘Berliner Zeitung’, all journalistic, political and business groups decided it was a dangerous precedence. As a result, the newspaper was ‘bounced back’ and returned to the German capital. Now, when we know the truth dangerous for the Polish national interest, about the gigantic presence of the foreign capital in the Polish media, it is necessary to use proper legislation in order to bring about re-polonization and de-concentration of media available in Poland. If we want to be a sovereign country, we cannot agree to the image of the media market, which can be seen in colonial countries. It is unacceptable that mass media in Poland would work under dictatorship of big companies and realize the political interest of foreign countries.
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„Niedziela” 15/2017