Media Tax As A Threat to Media Pluralism in Poland: Analysis and Future Prospects on the Example of the Hungarian Scenario

Abstract

At the beginning of February 2021, the draft bill on the additional income of the National Health Fund, the National Monument Protection Fund, and the establishment of the Fund to Support Culture and National Heritage in the Media was included in the curriculum of legislative works of the Council of Ministers. The aim of the project is to obtain additional funds that would help to prevent the long-term health, economic, and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The resources  would be derived from taxes imposed on advertising both on the Internet and in the traditional (but exclusively commercial) media. This project, colloquially referred to as the “media tax”, was soon considered a powerful blow to the free, independent media. Since their main source of income is advertising,, the proposed project could lead to a significant reduction in their level of income. This situation was almost immediately compared to the situation of the media in Hungary, where the activities of the media that do not publish pro-government content are regularly limited, both legally and financially. Similarly to the Polish draft bill, the Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA) was established  with the aim to support the diversity of the media in Hungary. However, the foundation includes only the pro-government media. The paper presents the similarities between the bill proposed by the politicians of Law and Justice party and the activities of KESMA – a foundation established after Viktor Orbán took power. The paper also presents the threat that media taxes could pose to media pluralism in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic.