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, in recent years the former government tried to restrict them through specific legislation under the pretext, for example, of combating Russian espionage influence. Thus, from September 2021 until the end of 2022, journalists could not circulate and work freely along the border with Belarus, where dozens of immigrants, out of the hundreds who tried to enter Poland, died. The media regulator, controlled by PiS appointees, tries to ward off journalism by means of legal recourse based on the need to protect “reasons of state”. Likewise, although the confidentiality of sources is enshrined in law, the authorities, in certain cases, have tried to undermine it. “Insulting” certain state institutions and defamation is 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. Prior to 2024, state advertising was allocated mainly to pro-government media, without any transparency. State-funded “local government newspapers” often competed 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 LGBTQ+ or gender-related issues, and blasphemy remains punishable by imprisonment. Independent media nonetheless enjoy strong support from a sizeable part of the population that protested, for example, against the law on the reacquisition of TVN. 

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. In 2021, they even deliberately prevented journalists from covering the refugee crisis near the border with Belarus by means of arbitrary and violent arrests.