Poland's government formally dissolves public media amid spat

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's new government is formally dissolving the public media, but plans to retain jobs, according to statements on Wednesday after public wrangling over the leadership of the country's top outlets.

"Following the decision by Poland's president to suspend the funding of public media, I have decided to put TVP, Polish Radio and the PAP news agency into liquidation," Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday.

He said that would ensure the continued functioning of these media and allow their reorganization to continue.

The latest step marks the next round in the dispute between the new, pro-European government and its right-wing nationalist predecessor over public media.

Last week, Sienkiewicz fired the entire management of the public broadcasters in a single step.

The new Civic Coalition (KO) government, dominated by Tusk's centre-right Civic Platform (PO), accuses the media of spreading party propaganda in recent years under the previous government, led by the national-conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS).

International organizations also criticized the one-sided reporting of Polish public media outlets.

On Saturday, Poland's President Andrzej Duda, himself from the ranks of the PiS, vetoed a law passed by Tusk's government that would have subsidised public broadcasters with the equivalent of €690 million ($760 million).

Duda justified the move by saying that this was a circumvention of the constitution and a breach of constitutional principles.

He demanded that the public media must first be thoroughly restored in accordance with the law.

Earlier on Wednesday, a journalist close to Poland's ousted PiS claimed in a social media post that he had taken over as director of public television broadcaster TVP.

The announcement by Pawel Adamczyk on X, formerly Twitter, was the latest step in the spat with Tusk's government, which earlier fired the TVP director, replacing him with Tomasz Syrgut.

Adamczyk said Poland's National Media Council had selected him for the post, making the claim on the TVP Info channel on X.

"In taking up the post, I pledge to do everything to restore legality in the broadcaster, to punish the guilty parties and to recommence operation of all programmes," Adamczyk posted.

He added that others putting themselves forward as directors were acting in contravention of the law.

Last week, minister Sienkiewicz fired all those at the head of public media firms, including the chief executives and supervisory boards of TVP, Polish radio and the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

In a show of opposition, PiS members of parliament occupied TVP and PAP offices over the Christmas period.

And on Sunday, the former TVP supervisory board chairman, Maciej Lopinski, seen as close to PiS, also termed himself the new TVP director, claiming that the board had selected him for the post.

The culture minister countered that the TVP board had been dissolved and was not authorized to take any decisions.