The Polish government has fired the management team of state media, widely seen as a relay of the former populist nationalist government.
The Polish government has fired the management team of state media, widely seen as a relay of the former populist nationalist government, eight days after a pro-European coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk seized power.
The president and members of the Board of Directors of television, radio and public agencies “have been dismissed”, the Ministry of Culture announced Wednesday in a press release.
State media controlled for eight years by the populist nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party have been regularly accused of presenting biased information, transmitting government propaganda and launching verbal attacks against the opposition.
On Wednesday, President Andrzej Duda gave his opinion on Polish legal system.
He attached a letter addressed to Donald Tusk in which he states in particular that “a parliamentary resolution does not have the force of law”.
Mr. Tusk immediately responded on
“You can count on our iron determination in this matter,” he added.
Shortly after the announcement made on Wednesday, regular broadcasting of the public general channel TVP was suspended, with only the television logo visible on the screens. The website of the news channel TVP Info was also suspended.
The day before, the new ruling coalition had Parliament adopt a resolution calling for the “restoration of legal order, impartiality and credibility of public media”.
Polish populist nationalists occupied public television premises overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday to defend “media pluralism”.
“To occupy”
Following changes in the management of public media, PiS President Jaroslaw Kaczynski, widely considered Poland’s de facto leader for the past eight years, was seen entering public television buildings.
“There is no democracy without media pluralism or strong anti-government media, and in Poland it is the public media,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski said overnight.
The PiS announced that its members would continue to occupy the television premises on a rotational basis.
Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, also present in the same building, denounced a “forced intrusion” by the new leadership on public television.
“What we are seeing is the first step towards a dictatorship,” Morawiecki told reporters.
Demonstrations in defense of public media have been announced for the evening in Warsaw.
On Wednesday, an AFP journalist also saw police enter the television headquarters.
The populist nationalist former Minister of Culture, Piotr Glinski, considered the new government’s moves “illegal”.
ADVERTISEMENT“This is obviously an attack on free media, it is a violation of the law,” Mr. Glinski told AFP.
The PiS lost power after the October legislative elections.
The PiS government has been repeatedly accused by its political opponents and non-governmental organizations of restricting media freedom while directing significant funding to state media.
In its 2020 report, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) highlighted that “partisan speech and incitement to hatred are still the rule in the (Polish) public media, which have been transformed into a mouthpiece for government propaganda.
