Poland: public media management dismissed
Poland's new government has dismissed the entire management of the country's public television and radio broadcasters. The move follows a parliamentary resolution with the aim of restoring the impartiality of the public media which it stated had "clearly carried out propaganda tasks" under the national-conservative PiS government. PiS supporters and MPs have gathered in protest outside the headquarters of public television broadcaster TVP to "protect" it.
Annoying whining from the PiS
For Rzeczpospolita's editor-in-chief Bogusław Chrabota everything is above board:
“I've had enough of the PiS politicians' annoying whining that the Tusk government fighting freedom of expression. And that the public media must be saved. This is the height of hypocrisy. And as in the days of totalitarian regimes the perpetrators are being confused with the victims. Removing the propagandists is a chance to return to normality, to professional standards and to the statutory mission. Punishment is necessary because there was guilt. That is what morality is all about.”
Polish version of the storming of the Capitol?
Tygodnik Powszechny compares the PiS politicians' actions with the events that followed Donald Trump's election defeat in 2021:
“The only difference is that the PiS MPs occupying the TVP building are behaving in a much more civilised manner than Trump's supporters. Not only do they have the right to protest in this way, they also have the law on their side to some extent. Because in order to make changes to the public media which genuinely comply with the law, the law on the National Media Council would have to be amended, and perhaps also the Broadcasting Act. ... However, it was the PiS itself that politicised the public broadcasters to such an extent that it constituted a clear violation of the Broadcasting Act, which obliges the media to be reliable and objective. And that gives the owner of these broadcasters the right to intervene.”
A clear violation of the constitution
Stanisław Janecki from the PiS-affiliated news website wPolityce.pl would have liked the head of state to intervene:
“At the time of the attack on the public media and its statutory bodies, President Andrzej Duda was chairing the deliberations of the National Security Council. There he came together with people, among them Donald Tusk, who had just broken the law, including the constitution. In my opinion, the President should ask Tusk to immediately restore a lawful state of affairs and suspend the deliberations of the National Security Council. ... As the guardian of the constitution, the president cannot and should not speak to enemies of the constitution, only the public prosecutor.”