Poland liquidates all public media for restructuring

Supporters of the Law and Justice party (PiS) take part in a protest in front of the Polish State Broadcaster’s HQ in Warsaw, December 20, 2023. Poland’s pro-EU government announced it has sacked leading figures at the state media outlet, widely seen as government mouthpieces during the right-wing populists’ time in power. AFP

WARSAW — Poland’s new culture minister on Wednesday announced the liquidation of all public media, which have been seen as a mouthpiece of the previous populist-nationalist government, ahead of a restructuring.

Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz said the move would “guarantee the working and restructuring” of the public television and radio stations and national press agency PAP while avoiding staff layoffs, according to a statement published on X, formerly Twitter.

“The liquidation status can be withdrawn at any time by the owner”, the state, he wrote.

The latest action is likely to aggravate the standoff between the government and President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the previous administration who has criticized the government’s reforms and vetoed subsidies to state media.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk‘s pro-EU government took power earlier this month after eight years of rule by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party.

PiS spokesman, Rafal Bochenek, on Wednesday called the liquidation move “a denial of all the rules of democracy — of the rules by which the state functions”.

Marcin Mastalerek, an adviser to Duda, said it demonstrated “the total powerlessness of the authorities, who have found no legal way of changing the authorities of these companies”.

Tusk’s government justified last week’s sacking of the management of public media as a bid to restore “impartiality”, after they were regularly accused of biased reporting, transmitting government propaganda and launching verbal attacks on the opposition under the PiS.

The move to sack the management prompted a sit-in by PiS lawmakers in the offices of the state broadcaster who say the reforms are an attack on media freedoms.