‘The jostling of big corporations is purely a game of bigger profits, which are not necessarily interrelated with better wages for workers. This has nothing to do with defending the freedom of speech’ – this is what Piotr Duda, the Chairman of the National Commission of NSZZ ‘Solidarity’, wrote about the protest of some media against the introduction of a fee for Internet and conventional advertising.
Piotr Duda’s position was posted on the ‘Tygodnik Solidarność’ – tysol.pl website.
The Chairman of ‘S’ stated that the announcement of the tax ‘has nothing to do with limiting the freedom of speech, and the protest of the largest media companies is motivated solely by financial reasons’.
‘I don’t recall similar activities of these media when freedom of speech was really threatened in Poland, as in the case of Telewizja Trwam, Rzeczpospolita and Uważam Rze, Wprost or even numerous cases of blocking media on social networking sites lately, e. g. Tygodnik Solidarność. I don’t even recall seeing these media outlets protesting on economic issues of other social groups, e. g. when the Labour Code was demolished, Open Pension Funds were taken over and VAT was raised, which had a dramatic financial effect on millions of workers and households,’ writes Piotr Duda.
‘In this sense, the action of the big media companies is a festival of hypocrisy and duplicity!’ said the ‘Solidarity’ Chairman.
Piotr Duda recalled that for many years there had been a discussion about the so-called ‘digital tax’ and a ‘financial transaction tax’, and in 2015 the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) Congress in Paris passed a resolution calling on the EU to introduce them.
‘It is also worth realising what we are really talking about. And we’re only talking about an ad tax that will depend on the amount of revenue. Small media will not be affected at all by the proposed solutions. And I know what I’m talking about because for decades Tygodnik Solidarność had to support itself without advertising. Therefore, the clamour of large corporations is only a game of bigger profits, which do not necessarily translate into better wages for workers. This has nothing to do with defending free speech,’ Duda wrote in his statement.
According to the Chairman of Solidarity, the reason for which the need to introduce this tax is important is also ‘to restore healthier principles of fair competition in an economic activity’.
At the beginning of February, a bill was included in the government’s legislative work list, which will result in the introduction of a fee on the internet advertising and conventional advertising. According to the assumptions, half of the revenue from the advertising premiums is to go to the National Health Fund (NFZ).