2024-01-18 20:52:00
The Polish government has suffered a setback in its planned restructuring of the public media. The Polish Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that dissolving state radio stations, television and news agencies would be illegal. “The right to dismiss members of the management rests exclusively with the National Media Council,” it added, referring to the institution set up by the previous government.
Shortly followingwards, the Ministry of Culture described the verdict as invalid. It cited irregularities in the appointment of judges, all of whom were appointed under the recently replaced national-conservative PiS government. The ministry also referred to previous decisions by the European Court of Human Rights that the Constitutional Court in its current composition is not an independent body.
This intensifies the dispute between the new government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and supporters of the former ruling party PiS, which also includes President Andrzej Duda.
Under the former PiS government, Poland went on a collision course with the European Union in several areas. Because of doubts regarding the rule of law, the PiS’s judicial reform was met with sharp criticism in Brussels. But the handling of the media was also criticized. The international community has therefore frozen billions in aid intended for Poland.
Former EU Council President Tusk now wants to reverse the PiS’s judicial reform and reform structures in the public media. The news channel TVP Info was switched off on December 20th and the other TVP channels did not broadcast any news for some time. In addition, public media executives were fired. Tusk and his supporters accused state media – especially TVP Info – of biased reporting in favor of the PiS government.
The conflict over the Polish media landscape is one of several that broke out following the change of power in its German neighbor. Given the current composition of the Polish Constitutional Court, many lawyers doubt its legitimacy. However, some others, such as the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, question the Culture Ministry’s actions.
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