Polish president fumes as Tusk frees media from PiS

Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government’s actions towards the public media, which involved replacing the public broadcaster management and taking it off the air, is ‘anarchy’ and a ‘blatant’ infringement of the constitution, said President Andrzej Duda.

On Tuesday night, the Polish parliament backed a resolution calling for independence, objectivity and pluralism in public TV and radio. The following day, new Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz dismissed the heads of TVP state broadcaster and Polish Radio and replaced them with new ones.

The sudden actions were criticised by the president, who called the changes absolutely illegal.

“This is anarchy,” he told Polsat News broadcaster, referring to “omitting existing laws in a situation, when […] the ruling majority could change the laws normally.”

Duda insisted he does not prohibit Tusk from introducing changes in the public media, but this must be done by changing the public media law and not just replacing the managing boards.

He said he wanted changes in the public media “as many Poles did,” but if the prime minister and the remaining ministers take their oath and pledge to obey the existing laws and the constitution, they should stick to it instead of “blatantly breaking (their pledge) with smiles on their faces and cynically calling it restoring the order.”

Over its eight-year rule, the previous PiS government changed the legislation under the media “repolonisation” label to dramatically enhance the ruling majority’s control over the public media.

As a result, TVP became what was widely believed to be a propaganda machine for the PiS government, regularly mocking the opposition and accusing it of acting against Polish interests and supporting the government’s policies.

New public media begin broadcasting

After the dismissal of TVP management, a few minutes before noon on Wednesday, the main TVP channels were taken off the air. Then, broadcasting resumed, but instead of TVP’s daily main news programme, Wiadomości, viewers saw a statement by the programme’s new director, Marek Czyż.

Stressing that no Polish citizen who finances the public media is obliged to listen to propaganda, he pledged that, from Thursday, the programme would present an objective “picture of the world”, “clear water” instead of “propaganda soup.”

Consequently, at 7.30 PM on Thursday, when Wiadomości normally started, a new news programme was broadcast under the name “19:30”, with Czyż as the host.

Yet, the new management found its work hard as PiS politicians have been occupying the TVP headquarters at Warsaw’s Woronicza Street and, for a long time, Czyż and his colleagues struggled to access the broadcasting rooms.

PiS politicians call the changes in the public media “a putsch,” comparing the sudden suspension of broadcasting to the Communist times, when martial law was introduced in December 1981. They said they would continue to protest until the new government’s decisions are revoked.

The president called for a political discussion on the public media, involving PiS as the main opposition party.

Duda is a former member of PiS and, over its presidential term, was often accused of breaking the principle of impartiality by supporting his former party and favouring its policies.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)

Read more with Euractiv

Germany to continue border controls until migratory pressure falls

The German government will keep border controls in place with its European neighbours so long as the number of refugees arriving stays high, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told RND on Thursday.