2023-12-21 15:39:57
Published on Dec 21 2023 at 4:39 p.m.
No more image, no more sound, but just a logo visible on the screen for all Polish viewers. This Wednesday, the regular broadcast of the Polish general public 24-hour news channel, TVP Info, was temporarily suspended – as was the TVP Info website -, while other public television channels saw their programs disrupted.
A few minutes earlier in the day, the Polish Ministry of Culture announced that the president, as well as members of the Board of Directors of television, radio and public agencies, had been fired. An abrupt announcement which came regarding ten days following the election, by the Polish Parliament, of the new Prime Minister Donald Tusk. In October, the conservatives, in power since 2015, came first in the legislative elections, but it was the pro-European opposition, led by Donald Tusk, who was able to form a government majority.
The latter therefore immediately undertook a clean-up operation within the public media which had been under the control, for eight years, of the populist nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party and had, on numerous occasions, been accused of impartiality. The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) thus highlighted, in its 2020 report, that “partisan speech and incitement to hatred are (were) still the rule in the (Polish) public media, which have been transformed into a mouthpiece for government propaganda.
An action criticized by conservative President Andrzej Duda
Earlier this week, the new ruling coalition had Parliament adopt a resolution calling for the “restoration of legal order, impartiality and credibility of public media”. Before proceeding with the dismissals of the general staff of Polish public media.
This decision was immediately criticized by the conservative president and political opponent of Donald Tusk, Andrzej Duda: “I call on Prime Minister Donald Tusk […] to respect the Polish legal order”, declared the latter, Wednesday, on X (formerly Twitter), specifying in a letter addressed to Donald Tusk, that a “parliamentary resolution does not of law “.
“You can count on our iron determination”
In response, the new Polish Prime Minister retorted: “Today’s actions aim – in accordance with your intention – to restore legal order and common decency in public life […] You can count on our iron determination in this matter,” he said.
During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, Polish populist nationalists occupied public television premises to defend, according to them, “media pluralism”. By way of news this Wednesday evening, a brand new presenter briefly announced, on TVP 1 – the main public television channel -, that a news bulletin, supposed to stick more to current events, was going to make its return to on air this Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
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