Gazeta Polska (Polish Newspaper) is a right-wing weekly magazine published in Poland. The magazine is known for its support to PiS, the political party in government in Poland. The magazine stirred controversy when it announced plans to proclaim an LGBT-free zone for its readers.
Media assets
Publishing: Gazeta Polska
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Private (CaPr)
Ownership and governance
The state doesn’t have any influence in the governing structures and ownership of Gazeta Polska, the publication being privately owned.
Source of funding and budget
A recent study by Kantar, an advertising agency, found that Gazeta Polska increased its ad sales from only €10,000 in 2015 to more than €2m in 2018 mainly thanks to an infusion of state advertising. The magazine would not release its budget, but according to local journalists, the increase has made state funding the largest part of the magazine’s budget. In 2021, the magazine again received about €2m in advertising mostly from state-owned companies, according to Kantar.
Editorial independence
Gazeta Polska is openly promoting the interests of the PiS government, which is rewarding the publication for its supportive coverage. Existing reports and an ad-hoc content analysis of some of Gazeta Polska’s stories (carried out in the week of 7 July 2020 as well as in May 2022) found coverage heavily biased in favor of the current government. Gazeta Polska was not included in the category of National Media introduced by the National Media Council Act of 2016, but the government captured it through subsidies.
There is no domestic statue and no independent/oversight mechanism validating the independence of the publisher.
October 2023