Tusk coalition puts Polish state media into liquidation
DONALD TUSK’S new pro-eu government has put Poland’s public television, radio and news agency into liquidation, deepening a bitter dispute over its publicly-owned media.
The decision comes as part of the coalition’s pledge to restore impartiality to state media, which critics say became a “mouthpiece” for the country’s nationalist Law and Justice (PIS) party during its eight years in power.
Earlier this month, Mr Tusk’s administration took state news channel TVP Info off air and sacked a large number of state media executives.
The changes have drawn strong opposition from PIS, which says the new government has circumvented normal parliamentary procedure in implementing them and called the wave of dismissals illegal.
The move follows a decision by Andrzej Duda, Poland’s president and a PIS ally, to veto the government’s three billion zloty (£603 million) spending proposals for public media financing.
Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, the country’s culture minister, said that putting the companies into liquidation would mean they could still operate while restructuring took place. He added that they could be taken out of liquidation by the culture ministry at any time, and that further staff layoffs would be avoided.
Joanna Lichocka, a PIS parliamentarian, accused the coalition government of “destroying the Polish media” amid allegations from the party that on-air conservative voices are being silenced.
Marcin Mastalerek, the head of the president’s office, said the liquidation announcement was an “admission of defeat” by Mr Tusk’s coalition, alleging they could not find a legal way to overhaul the boards.
Media analysts and free speech activists say that, under PIS, TVP Info did not act as the neutral news provider its charter says it should be but as a government mouthpiece.