"Here, your favorite program had been broadcast", reads a message that has replaced the regular broadcast on the channel TVN24.
On the front pages of the major newspapers Fakt and Gazeta Wyborcza, it says on Wednesday something like "Media without elections".
"You should be able to see our content on this page.
If the government's plans are successful, you may one day not be able to do it for real, ”reads Gazeta Wyborcza's online homepage.
On the contrary in controlled media
The protest takes place over a 24-hour period and is aimed at a new tax that the government wants to introduce, which the media companies believe can lower them completely.
The government, led by the right-wing nationalist party Law and Justice, has previously carried out a series of criticized media reforms and taken control of Poland's publicly funded media under the motto that they must become "more Polish".
The TV channel TVP, which today is considered politically controlled, did not take part in the protest.
Instead, it reported with the headline "Media companies do not want to share their multi-million income to Poles".
The new tax is described by the government as a "solidarity compensation", in line with the EU initiative aimed at online giants such as Facebook and Google, but in Poland it is also expected to affect other, independent media companies' already scarred advertising revenues.
Up to 15 percent of that revenue could be taxable, according to a government spokesman.
Growing EU concerns
Freedom of the press in Poland became an even more burning topic in December, when a state-owned oil company bought the media group Polska Press and thus took control of a large part of the country's newspapers.
The European Commission, which has had its eyes on Poland and Hungary for several years on issues such as these, expresses concern about the situation.
In Hungary, an opposition radio station was shut down on Tuesday.
"We expect Member States to ensure that their tax or other policies do not go beyond their duty to ensure a free, independent and diverse media system," said Commission spokesman Christian Wigand.