Change of government in Warsaw - Poland: Public media leadership dismissed
Poland's new pro-European government has dismissed the entire management of the public media. The decision affects the CEOs and the supervisory boards of the television station TVP, Polish Radio and the news agency PAP, announced the Ministry of Culture in Warsaw. New supervisory boards have already been appointed and will elect new board members.
The restructuring and reorientation of the content of public broadcasting is one of the priorities of Donald Tusk's government. It accuses the media of spreading party propaganda over the past eight years under the national-conservative PiS government.
Parliament: media have lost their legal mandate
On Tuesday evening, parliament passed a resolution to "restore the legality and impartiality" of the public media. It stated that these media had lost their legal mandate to provide reliable and impartial information and had become partisan media. The Ministry of Culture and the Ministry for State Participation, which is involved in the broadcasters via ownership bodies, must now take corrective action.
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.
Media as the "propaganda arm of the PiS"
International organizations had criticized the public media's one-sided coverage of the election campaign. These had "completely transformed into a propaganda arm of the ruling PiS" and participated in the vilification of its critics, according to a report by the European Center for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), which is mainly funded by the EU Commission.
The OSCE election observer mission complained that the public broadcaster had "clearly favored the PiS in its reporting and at the same time displayed open hostility towards the opposition".
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- The dismissal of the public media leadership, including TVP, Polish Radio, and PAP, was undertaken by the new government, as announced by the Ministry of Culture in Warsaw.
- The change of government in Poland, led by Donald Tusk and his three-party alliance, aims to restructure and reorient the content of public broadcasting, as they accuse the media of spreading party propaganda under the PiS government.
- In response to the parliament's resolution, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry for State Participation in Poland are now required to take corrective action due to the public media allegedly losing their legal mandate and becoming partisan media.
- International organizations, such as the European Center for Press and Media Freedom and the OSCE election observer mission, have criticized the public media's biased coverage during the election campaign in Poland, denouncing it as the "propaganda arm of the PiS."
Source: www.stern.de
