Between Market Position and Power
German Media Corporations in Poland
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
German media corporations play a crucial role in the Polish print media market. The Passauer Neue Presse invested in numerous regional newspapers in Poland as early as 1994. The conservative quality paper Dziennik, the weekly newsmagazine Newsweek Polska, and the tabloid from Axel Springer are each reaching peak circulation within their respective genre. German capital, however, in no way means German policy. The Springer product Fakt, for example, makes use of anti-German stereotypes in Poland just as BILD reproduces anti-Polish prejudices in Germany. So it is not the Springer papers but Warsaw-based journalists from Germany’s daily papers which feel the restrictions on freedom of the press under the Kaczyński brothers.
(Osteuropa 11-12/2006, pp. 261–270)