Poland’s pro-EU cupboard sacks state media bosses in transfer to revive ‘impartiality’ | EUROtoday

Issued on: 21/12/2023 – 10:05

2 min

The shakeup comes per week after Prime Minister Donald Tusk took energy and after eight years of rule by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) get together.

PiS politicians denounced the media reshuffle as “illegal”, whereas their ally, the nation’s president, known as on the federal government to “respect Poland’s legal order”.

State-owned media below the PiS had been usually accused of biased reporting, transmitting authorities propaganda and launching verbal assaults on the opposition.

The tradition ministry stated in an announcement the chairmen and boards of the state-owned tv, radio, and information company had been eliminated in a bid to revive the “impartiality” of public media.

Shortly after the announcement, state information channel TVP’s common broadcast was suspended, with solely the tv brand seen on TV screens.

The TVP Info information channel’s web site additionally went offline.

Opposition protests

On Tuesday, the brand new ruling bloc had adopted a decision calling for the restoration of the “impartiality and reliability of the public media”.

But PiS lawmakers largely boycotted the parliamentary vote, staging a sit-in within the state tv buildings that continued by the night time into Wednesday.

And on Wednesday, President Andrzej Duda weighed in.

“In connection with the culture ministry’s actions today regarding public media, I call on Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the cabinet to respect Poland’s legal order,” he wrote on X.

Attached, was a letter to Tusk through which he stated that “a parliament resolution does not have the force of law”.

Tusk instantly tweeted again, saying: “as I already informed you, today’s actions are – in accordance with your intention – aimed at restoring legal order and common decency in public life.

“You can depend on our iron willpower on this matter,” he added.

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Following the adjustments in state media administration, PiS chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski was seen getting into the state tv constructing.

Kaczynski is the get together’s most distinguished politician and for eight years was broadly considered Poland’s de facto chief.

“There is no democracy without media pluralism or strong anti-government media, and in Poland these are the public media,” he instructed reporters on Tuesday night.

‘Partisan discourse’

Kaczynski stated PiS politicians might proceed the protest on rotating shifts.

Former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, additionally current within the constructing, stated “a forcible intrusion” of the brand new administration was going down in state-owned tv.

“What we are seeing is the first step towards a dictatorship,” Morawiecki instructed reporters.

On Wednesday, an AFP reporter additionally noticed police enter the tv constructing.

A former tradition minister within the PiS authorities stated the state media reshuffle was “illegal”.

“This is clearly an attack on free media, it is a violation of the law,” Piotr Glinski instructed AFP.

The PiS authorities was steadily criticised by the opposition and non-profits alike for attempting to stifle unbiased media and restrict freedom of expression.

Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 2020 stated “partisan discourse and hate speech are still the rule within (Poland’s) state-owned media, which have been transformed into government propaganda mouthpieces.”

In the 2023 report, RSF additionally stated the PiS authorities “has multiplied its attempts to change the editorial line of private media and control information on sensitive subjects.”

(AFP)