New government - Conflict over public media in Poland continues
In Poland, the conflict over the public media continues after the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk replaced the leadership. Politicians from the voted-out national-conservative ruling party PiS also protested on Thursday. President Andrzej Duda, who comes from the PiS, called the procedure "completely unlawful" and a violation of the constitution. Anyone who wanted different rules for the management of the media would first have to change the relevant law, Duda told the radio station Zet. "This is anarchy. It is anarchy to circumvent the law," he said.
The previous day, Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz had fired the entire management of the public broadcasters in one fell swoop. This affected the CEOs and supervisory board members of the TV station TVP, Polish radio and the news agency PAP. The Tusk government accuses the media of spreading party propaganda over the past eight years under the PiS government. International organizations had also criticized the one-sided reporting of the public media in Poland.
The PiS leadership around Jaroslaw Kaczynski protested, speaking of a coup d'état and an attack on democracy and freedom of the press. However, rallies in front of the television headquarters on Wednesday were not very popular. Some PiS representatives stayed in the TVP building overnight. Normal news operations were to be resumed on Thursday under a new aegis.
At the PAP agency, the previous head Wojciech Surmacz did not want to accept his dismissal, as the portal gazeta.pl reported. At the same time, the new head Marek Blonski is in the building and has ordered initial personnel changes.
In the election on October 15, a three-party alliance of the former opposition led by Tusk won the government majority. The PiS, which had been in power since 2015, lost power.
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Source: www.stern.de
