Appeal by Society of Journalists (Warsaw)

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) have written to Poland’s Prime Minister and the Ministers of Culture and Finance, appealing for adequate budgetary funding for public media.

To date, public media, in accordance with our Broadcasting Act, are financed by a radio and television license fee paid by listeners. However this is a fiction. Only one in ten of our citizens pay the fee, and the National Broadcasting Council, our media regulator, has frozen a portion of these funds in court deposits. Public media barely survive thanks to a drip feed from the budgetary reserve and advertising revenues, which are dependent on the size of audience levels.

In their letters, the EBU and EFJ point out that the reforms envisaged by the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) should enable the sustainable development of independent and impartial public media.  EMFA came into force in the European Union on August 8 2025 and thus argue that EMFA’s solutions should  be implemented directly into Polish law, so that our public media can become the key place where our citizens can access true and reliable information.

The EFJ and EBU emphasize that a public media enjoying  public trust are a critical element of our country’s  security infrastructure and they call for the  2026 budget and subsequent annual budget allocations adequately fund this requirement.

EMFA based reforms of our public media must go hand in hand with an adequate financing system.

Our Journalists’ Association joins the EBU and EFJ appeal.

Warsaw

October 17, 2025