The Sejm was almost unanimous in both cases. Thirteen MPs voted to reject the report of the National Broadcasting Council, four were against, and no one abstained. Twelve MPs voted to reject the information from the National Media Council, four were against, and no one abstained. Last Wednesday, the report of the National Broadcasting Council and the information on the activities of the National Media Council last year were rejected by senators. The day before, the Senate’s culture committee made the same decision.
The Sejm rejected the KRRiT report
In accordance with the Broadcasting Act, the National Council annually presents to the Sejm, Senate and President of the Republic of Poland a report on its activities for the preceding year and information on the basic problems of radio and television. In the event of rejection of the report by the Sejm and Senate, the term of office of all members of the National Council expires within 14 days, counted from the date of the last resolution. However, the expiry of the term of office of the National Council does not occur unless it is confirmed by the President of the Republic of Poland.
As reported by PAP, the draft resolution of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland regarding the KRRiT report in 2023 states:
The Sejm of the Republic of Poland rejects the report of the National Broadcasting Council on its activities in 2023 due to: 1. Tolerating the systemic violation by public media of Article 21 of the Act of 29 December 1992 on Radio and Television, including the obligation to offer information and journalism characterized by pluralism, impartiality, balance and independence. 2. Tolerating a situation in which active politicians make key decisions in personnel matters through the National Media Council and defending this state of affairs after the appointment of a new government. 3. The lack of an in-depth analysis in the Report on the negligence in the functioning of public media. 4. Failure to present a long-term strategy for the KRRiT’s operations. 5. Unequal treatment of broadcasters by the KRRiT. 6. Unjustified delay of licensing proceedings. 7. Speech by the Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council during the 19th Plenary Meeting of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), which took place on 29 June 2023.
Świrski and Czabański did not appear at the meeting regarding the National Broadcasting Council
The Commission also adopted a resolution on rejecting information on the activities of the National Media Council. Importantly, the meeting was not attended by the chairman of the National Broadcasting Council, Maciej Świrski, nor the chairman of the National Media Council, Krzysztof Czabański.
“In this situation, I requested a meeting of the committee presidium, which took place last Friday, at which I informed about the situation and proposed the following solution: since Mr. Chairman Świrski is unavailable during the Sejm session, I want to convene a meeting of the Committee between the Sejm sessions, assuming that Mr. Chairman Świrski will be available. (…) On Monday, I received a letter addressed to me, in which Mr. Chairman Świrski informs me that he cannot participate in this meeting for objective reasons, because at that time he is on a foreign delegation and participates in the meetings of the European Regulators Group, which are important for the Polish media market,” said Piotr Adamowicz, chairman of the Culture and Media Committee. He informed that attorney Janusz Niedziela was authorized to represent the KRRiT report.
The attorney reported that in 2023 a total of PLN 3.320 billion would be allocated to public media, of which PLN 616 million were funds from subscription fees.
“Broken down by individual media, there were PLN 2.662 billion for Polish Television, PLN 338 million for Polish Radio, and PLN 320 million for local radio stations,” he said. “A serious legal problem that the National Broadcasting Council faced were the changes made at the end of last year as a result of actions taken by the Minister of Culture following a resolution of the Sejm,” he added.
Mieszkowski: Świrski should be deprived of such a responsible and important function
During the discussion, KO MP Krzysztof Mieszkowski, referring to Maciej Świrski’s absence from the meeting, said: “I think that Mr Świrski is outside the borders not only today. Mr Świrski has been outside the borders since the first day of his term in office. He is an example of a public official who is doing violence to the media reality in Poland, taking away the right to freedom of speech and creative activity from many media institutions, announcing various, absolutely bizarre accusations, imposing huge financial penalties”. He assessed that “we need to consider how to deprive Mr Świrski of such an important, responsible and significant public function”.
PiS MP Marek Suski commented on Mieszkowski’s statement. “As for the violence that MP Mieszkowski spoke about here, it seems that it was committed by the Coalition on December 13 through security agencies, strange law firms. I was at these events myself, I saw how brutally those gentlemen, probably hired by you, behaved, because some said that they were there on a voluntary basis. This hatred on your part was materialized,” Suski said. Then he accused the current government of behavior that was “completely contrary to the practices of a democratic state of law.”
Maciej Wróbel (KO), who is the chairman of the parliamentary subcommittee on media and audiovisual policy, assessed that the absence of chairman Świrski at the committee meeting was “quite symbolic”. “We do not really have a chairman of the National Broadcasting Council, because we do not really have an independent National Broadcasting Council, and besides, the chairman has never hidden the fact that he supports PiS, which is clearly audible in his speeches from years ago,” he emphasized.
“The absence of Mr. Chairman Świrski means that we cannot really ask the most important questions that we want to ask him. We cannot ask why he does not transfer funds from the radio and television license fee to public media, why he imposes huge fines on private broadcasters, completely failing to see the manipulations that took place in the public media in 2023 and in previous years,” added Wróbel.
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.
