There are three major media groups that operate in Poland’s television market. Two commercial, heavily left-liberal private ones and the public media, which in recent years added conservative content to the media landscape.

In recent years, they were the ones that provided Poles with pluralism. Even if internally they were not fully pluralistic, the entire media scene was so. In every Polish home, there were pro-government, anti-government, and centre-seeking media channels within reach of the remote control.

The events of recent days, the attempt by the new government (Tusk took power on October 13) to take control of TVP, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency, is destroying this balance.

Is this attempt legitimate, justified? Apparently, it is based on a resolution of the Sejm, which is the grounds for the actions of the Minister of Culture, who announced that he is changing the management of the public media. But a Sejm resolution is not a source of law. It is the law on public broadcasting that determines how public media companies operate, who elects their authorities, and for what terms. The current parliamentary majority does not have the power - nor the consent of the president - to change this law.

In the opinion of the vast majority of lawyers, including constitutionalists, the current actions are therefore unlawful.

Prof. Ryszard Piotrowski, a constitutionalist from Warsaw University, states:

„The minister’s actions are not based on sufficient legal grounds. The 2016 Constitutional Court verdict should have been implemented first, and only then should we proceed with any actions concerning the management and supervisory boards, but in accordance with the current law”.

To implement means in the Polish political system to write a new law.

Once again, let’s give the floor to Prof. Piotrowski:

„The ruling coalition has 248 votes in the Parliament. To reject the president’s veto you need 276 votes. The result of the elections is that the public has allowed the formation of a coalition that wants power, but it has not allowed it to decide on everything. The coalition can only act within the limits set by the constitution. It is therefore necessary to take into account the position of the president, who clearly wrote in a letter to Speaker Szymon Holownia that the law must be obeyed. And the law is not written at election rallies. It is necessary to amend the law and do so decently and convincingly enough to get the president’s approval”.

There is another argument that can be pointed out here: there was a battle for public media in Poland between different groups, SLD, AWS, the Freedom Union - no one ever came up with the idea that it was possible to bypass the Public Broadcasting Act by referring to the Commercial Companies Code, that the Minister of Culture could appoint boards of directors. Everyone already knew it was unlawful.

Unfortunately, after weeks of pressuring and pushing the authorities and journalists of the public media, when it became apparent that there was no legally permissible avenue, the authorities decided to use the force option.

The task is being carried out by special services colonel Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, directed with this task to the Ministry of Culture**.

The signal of TVP Info was turned off illegally, by deception, causing huge financial losses, and letting viewers down. They simply cut off the legitimate media from broadcasting. No news and current affairs programs are shown.

Watch the video below from minute 7:

The archives of these programs have been removed from the websites. Instead of the News at 7:30 p.m., an illegally produced program favourable to the authorities is on the air.

The team employed by Tusk’s government to prepare the „new program”:

In the minds of many Poles, this creates associations with the state of martial law. At that time, a „back-up studio” was created, in a military unit, where the politically correct program was broadcast from, and the legitimate television was turned off. Again - as they did back then - the right to exercise journalism is being handed out by the ruling politicians to some, and taken away from others. It’s not just words - if you’re from an editorial office that they don’t like, you won’t get into a conference, you won’t get accreditation, and you’ll get fired. This is what Poland looks like under Tusk.

Independent commentators speak of „Belarusian standards.” At the moment, the legal authorities of the Polish Press Agency are refusing to comply with the attackers, who are sadly backed by the police. There is also ongoing resistance at the headquarters of the public television information department.

Former Prime Minister Beata Szydło wrote:

„Strong people” sent to the PAP headquarters to illegally take it over are sitting in the hall of the facility and waiting, stopped by @pisorgpl MPs. In the democratic history of Poland, there has never been a situation where a group of thugs tried to seize companies and public facilities with impunity while the police were passive. The alleged „lawful” government is turning Poland into Belarus or Russia.

(wsp. K.J.)