The new Polish government formally disbanded the public media
Poland's new government is headed by Donald Tusk
Source: dpa/Czarek Sokolowski
In Poland, the conflict between the pro-European government and President Andrzej Duda is entering a new round. State media will be formally disbanded to allow for “restructuring”. Jobs should be protected.
I amThe new government has decided on a radical overhaul of public media in Poland. Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz announced on Wednesday evening that state television, state broadcasting and the PAP news agency would be formally dissolved and liquidated. This should enable “Reset”. A week earlier, the ministry had already dismissed the entire management team of Polish state media, which for years had been considered a mouthpiece of the right-wing nationalist previous government.
Sienkiewicz explained in X that the official liquidation of the media should preserve their “functioning and restructuring” and at the same time jobs. The liquidation status can be revoked at any time by the “owner”, i.e. the Polish state.
With the decision, the conflict between Prime Minister Donald Tusk's new pro-European government and President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the previous government, enters a new round. Last week, Duda announced he would veto the new government's budget law to block planned funding for public media worth 690 million euros.
Duda justified his veto by saying that subsidizing the media was unconstitutional and a violation of constitutional principles. Duda demanded that the public media be “legally restored”, with a view to sacking the station chiefs.
After the head of the state media was sacked, politicians from the former ruling PiS party also occupied the public television building to defend “media pluralism”, according to their own statements. However, the new government referred to a resolution previously passed by the newly elected parliament, with the aim of restoring the “impartiality” of the public media.
The PiS government, which was ousted in October, has repeatedly been accused by the opposition and non-governmental organizations of increasingly restricting media freedom in Poland during its eight-year rule, pouring significant financial resources into and replacing state media. As a mouthpiece for right-wing nationalist government propaganda.
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