The new Polish Minister of Culture announced Wednesday evening that public media considered to be a relay of the former populist government had been placed in a state of “liquidation”. Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz motivated his decision in particular by the desire to “ensure the functioning and restructuring” of public radio and television and the Polish press agency PAP and “to avoid layoffs of employees” of these companies , according to a press release published on X. “The liquidation status can be withdrawn at any time by the owner” which is the State, wrote Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz.
The minister’s decision comes after that of Polish President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the populist nationalists ousted from power, to veto the granting of subsidies to these media, whose management team has just been replaced by the new pro government. -European by Donald Tusk. Shortly after the dismissal of its leaders, broadcasting of the public news channel TVP was suspended. Ousted from power following the October legislative elections, the populists are protesting against these decisions which they consider to be “an attack on media freedom”. Some of their deputies have been occupying offices of television and the PAP agency for several days and refuse to recognize their new management team.
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During the eight years in power of the populist nationalist party, the public media became a real relay for the government in Poland. In its 2020 report, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) highlighted that “partisan speech and incitement to hatred are still the rule in the (Polish) public media, which have been transformed into a mouthpiece for government propaganda.
