The Polish government wants to dismantle the media and rebuild it

Controversy over public media continues in Poland. Culture Minister Sienkiewicz announced the formal liquidation of public television and radio. The aim is to completely reorganize these media.

The new Polish government has announced the formal liquidation of all public media. Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz announced on X site (formerly Twitter) that the aim is to restore it from the ground up and preserve its functionality.

“Following the Polish President's decision to suspend funding for public media, I have decided to dissolve TVP, Polish Radio and the PAP news agency,” wrote Sienkiewicz. It is important to ensure the continuity of these media and protect jobs. The liquidation status can be revoked at any time by the “owner”, i.e. the Polish state.

Poland is fighting for its media

The move takes the dispute between the new and old government camps over public media to the next round. A week earlier, Sienkiewicz had already dismissed the entire leadership of Polish state media, which for years had been considered the mouthpiece of the right-wing nationalist previous government.

The government under Donald Tusk accuses the media of spreading party propaganda in recent years under the national-conservative PiS government, which has now been voted out. International organizations have also criticized the one-sided reporting by public media in Poland.

With local and European parliamentary elections due next year, observers said the PiS party hopes to maintain control of state media and spread its message. Public media in Poland are funded by taxpayers and, according to the constitution, must be free of political bias.

Duta presents expenditure bill without funds for media

Poland's President Andrzej Duda, himself from the PiS ranks, has blocked the Tusk government's plans for public broadcasters. Last week he tabled an amended spending bill that countered the new government's goal of freeing the media from political control.

Duda vetoed the new government's draft law that allocated three billion zlotys (about 692 million euros) to public media. In his draft, these funds have been eliminated.

The President 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. On the other hand, 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.