The dispute over public and state-affiliated media in Poland has a new facet. Polish Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz announced yesterday that he would liquidate the country's television, radio and news agency.
His decision follows President Andrzej Duda's decision to veto the new government's budget law for 2024. “Due to the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland to suspend funding for public media, I have decided to liquidate the companies Telewizja Polska SA , Polskie Radio SA and Polska Agencja Prasowa SA,” said Sienkiewicz.
“In the current situation, such a measure will guarantee the continued operation of these companies, carry out the necessary restructuring and avoid layoffs of employees in the aforementioned companies.” With this, the government apparently tries to increase pressure on Duda.
Public media restructuring
Following the October elections, the new pro-European prime minister, Donald Tusk, and his allies took over the government in Warsaw two weeks ago. A week ago, the Ministry of Culture had already removed the entire leadership of the Polish public media, which for years were considered spokespeople of the right-wing nationalist government that preceded PiS.
The non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) concluded, around 2020, that one-sided reporting and “hate speech” were the order of the day in the media in Poland. The public media were transformed into “spokespeople for government propaganda”. In its 2023 report, the organization noted that the PiS government is also increasingly trying to bring private media outlets under its control.