Poland’s new pro-EU government has begun to wrest control of the country’s state media and some other state agencies from the conservative party that consolidated its grip on them during eight years in power.
The cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which took office last week, said on Wednesday it had fired and replaced the directors of the state television and radio outlets and the government-run news agency.
It seeks to re-establish independent media in Poland in a legally binding and lasting way.
Mr Tusk’s government has made it a priority to restore objectivity and free expression in state media, which the previous government, under the Law and Justice party, used as aggressive propaganda tools, attacking Mr Tusk and the opposition and spreading its eurosceptic views.
During its rule, Law and Justice cut corners and ignored some procedures to gain control of the media supervisory bodies and of the key appointments as it tightened its grip.
Panie Prezydencie, tak jak już Pana informowałem, dzisiejsze działania mają na celu - zgodnie z Pana intencją - przywrócenie ładu prawnego i zwykłej przyzwoitości w życiu publicznym. Może Pan liczyć w tej sprawie na naszą determinację i żelazną konsekwencję.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) December 20, 2023
The new government’s first steps toward a return to media freedom were met with protest by Law and Justice.
Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, top party figures and many of its MPs occupied buildings housing the offices and studios of state-run television TVP in the hope that their supporters would come out to demonstrate in big numbers.
A rally was called for later on Wednesday and a few hundred people gathered, flying Poland’s national white-and-red flags, but then dispersed.
Law and Justice said the actions of the new government were “illegal” and that the changes in leadership of the media outlets were done “unlawfully”.
The statement quoted Mr Kaczynski, Poland’s most powerful politician until recently, saying the protest is a “defence of democracy because there is no democracy without media pluralism or a strong anti-government media. In any democracy, there must be strong anti-government media”.
The irony was that for years the Law and Justice government actively sought to discredit and eliminate from the market the TVN station that was highly critical of the administration. TVN is owned by Warner Bros Discovery.
The change of management was done in line with the law, as the new government exercised its 100% ownership rights.
On Tuesday, Polish MPs adopted a resolution presented by Mr Tusk’s government calling for the restoration of “legal order, objectivity and fairness” of TVP, Polish Radio and the PAP news agency.
Following the resolution, Poland’s new culture minister, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, replaced the heads and the supervisory boards of state media, which chose new management.
In the first sign of change, the all-news TVP INFO channel, one of the previous government’s main propaganda tools, ceased to broadcast on air and over the internet on Wednesday morning.
The quick change apparently did not leave the new team enough time to prepare for the main evening news programme, which was not broadcast, probably for the first time.
Instead, the new presenter said that there will be no more propaganda, while objective news would now be broadcast.
President Andrzej Duda, who was an ally of the previous government, has warned that he will not accept moves that he believes to be against the law.
However, his critics have long accused him of violating the Polish constitution and other laws as he tried to support the policies of the Law and Justice party.
Some of the party’s policies, especially in the judicial sector, drew strong criticism and financial sanctions from the EU, which saw them as undemocratic.
Mr Tusk told assured Mr Duda that the moves in the state media are aimed at restoring “legal order and simple decency in public life”, all in line with Mr Duda’s intentions.
“You can count on our determination and unwavering consistency,” Tusk wrote on X, previously Twitter.
The government took office December 13 and began reversing policies of the previous administration that many in Poland found divisive.
In one such move, Mr Tusk had new heads of the security, intelligence and anti-corruption offices appointed on Tuesday.
