On December 19, 2023, the Sejm, with 244 votes in favour, adopted a resolution on “restoring legal order and the impartiality and reliability of the public media and the Polish Press Agency”. On the same day, Minister of Culture Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz dismissed the authorities of the public media. At night, United Right politicians began to occupy TVP buildings to express their opposition and make it difficult for the new authorities to enter the offices. The next day, the broadcast of TVP Info was interrupted, and TVP’s “Wiadomości” ended its existence.
The BBC says directly that the method of healing public media in Poland is debatable
This unprecedented situation has not escaped the attention of foreign media, most of which try to present both sides of the coin. “The recovery of public media is underway in Poland. On Wednesday, the new Minister of Culture announced the liquidation of public radio, television and the Polish Press Agency,” reports the European multilingual news channel Euronews.
The editorial team commented on this subject in more detail. “In turn, this move, on the one hand, is a fulfillment of the new government’s promises to restore the impartiality of state media in Poland, but on the other hand it also causes a number of controversies,” we read. However, they also indicate that public media in their current form have not been impartial:
Law organizations questioned the manner in which the current management boards were dismissed. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights stated that public media require urgent reform because under the rule of PiS they have become a propaganda spokesman for the ruling camp (…). ‘However, it cannot be ignored that the method of initiating changes in public media raises serious doubts,’ said the foundation.
Throughout Europe, but also in the United States, they remember the practices of the PiS government
In turn, the editors of the German daily “” referred to the report of the international organization Reporters Without Borders. “In their 2023 report, Reporters Without Borders noted that the PiS government is increasingly trying to control private media,” they point out.
However, on the website of the television daily “”, which is the oldest program of this type in the history of modern Germany, he writes directly about the reasons why Law and Justice would like to retain control over the public media in the country:
Commentators said that the PiS party hopes to maintain control over the state media and use them to spread its message before next year’s local government and European Parliament elections.
A journalist from the Spanish daily “” has a similar opinion, who begins her article with the words: “No one is surprised that the ultraconservative Law and Justice party is clinging to power so as not to lose control over the Polish public media, which have served it as a tool for eight years. propaganda”.
The American website points to “radical steps” that will result in a conflict with representatives of the previous government. However, they remind us what means Law and Justice has used in recent years:
During its time in power, PiS manipulated procedures and circumvented the constitution to take control of media regulators and create a special government agency responsible for key nominations, enabling the party to tighten control over public broadcasters
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
