We have drawn attention several times to the issue of the local government’s stake in Azart-Sat. We believed it was an undesirable situation—the television station should be either entirely private or entirely municipal. We also wrote that councillors do not know what influence they have or what they can do about the television station (see: Councillors powerless on the local television issue and Discussion about the television station dominated the city council session). After our reports, there were promises that the problem would be resolved, but nothing has been done to this day.
We are still looking for arguments showing that the situation is inappropriate. We obtained a report on municipal companies in some cities, presented by the Supreme Audit Office at the end of September. It turned out that in Legnica, the city held only a 0.4% stake in TVL from Lubin. The Supreme Audit Office ruled that a municipality’s participation in companies of this type is unauthorized because it creates the possibility of an uncontrolled flow of public money to private shareholders. This raises the question of what report would result from an audit in Bolesławiec, where the city holds not 0.4% of a private television station, but one hundred times more…
“One can imagine a television station funded by the municipal office. But it should serve information purposes exclusively. The Supreme Audit Office has a website where various information, including video materials, is posted. But no one at the SAO set up a company for this purpose. Television is above all an expensive undertaking. There are several important questions. Do residents want to subsidize such a company when it incurs a loss? What about the legitimacy of the costs of various investments? Is maintaining the company in the residents’ interest? Is this a public purpose? Independence from those in power is, after all, fundamental to the nature of the media. It is better to invest in modern means of informing people about the office’s work than in such a form of pretending to be free media,” Paweł Biedziak, press spokesperson for the Supreme Audit Office, told us.
After the SAO published its report, at the beginning of October we asked Mayor Piotr Roman what he intended to do about the local television station. We also sent him the audit findings. Spokesperson Agnieszka Gergont replied that the mayor maintained his intention to sell the shares in Telewizja Lokalna Azart-Sat and that he had commissioned a legal opinion on the matter. We received no answer to our subsequent question about when exactly the mayor had commissioned the opinion and when it could be expected. From one of the city council session recordings that we obtained, however, we learned how much the city earns from its stake in the company. “The income is probably zero; there has never been a dividend in the company’s history. The television station made some profit or some loss, but it allocated that to its operations,” the mayor explained.
The opposition has often accused and continues to accuse the mayor of maintaining this state of affairs and using the television station for his own purposes. Opinions are frequently repeated that Azart-Sat is biased and unobjective. It mainly produces reports from events attended by Piotr Roman.
“What about residents who do not agree to building a mouthpiece for those in power? Such people may want reliable information on the office’s websites and at the office itself, but they do not want a mouthpiece or propaganda. This is a serious question to which councillors should devote at least one session,” says Paweł Biedziak.
The councillors, meanwhile, have done nothing meaningful. Some opposition councillors raised these issues, but to no avail. None of the councillors filed a notification with the SAO asking it to investigate the situation in Bolesławiec.
According to the SAO spokesperson, one can imagine a city developing its municipal communication with citizens, for example in the form of digital or online television. But then it is clear that it is municipal television. “The situation is transparent because it is the office’s television station; the councillors agreed to it, and no one assumes that it is free media and that journalists, rather than PR specialists, work there,” says Paweł Biedziak.
Telewizja Lokalna “Azart-Sat” is a limited liability company. It broadcasts over a network with just over 6,000 outlets. The city holds 40 percent of the shares; the remainder belongs to the owner of the cable network, who is also the television station president’s father. Anyone who wants to watch Azart-Sat on a television set must pay a subscription. Despite these fees, the City Office, on behalf of all residents—even those who do not have and cannot have cable television—pays the local television station again. For programs, advertisements and announcements. About PLN 100,000 every year.
(information by Krzysztof Gwizdała)