Poland’s new government sacks state TV, radio and news bosses

Poland’s new administration has announced it is sacking executives at state media outlets that were widely seen as government mouthpieces during the eight years in power of the rightwing populist Law and Justice party (PiS).

The chairs and boards of the state television, radio and news agencies had been removed, Poland’s culture ministry said on Wednesday, citing the need to restore their impartiality.

State-owned media had been regularly accused of biased reporting, transmitting propaganda and launching verbal attacks on the opposition. The new ruling coalition, led by the prime minister, Donald Tusk, had vowed to deliver on his campaign pledge to reset public television. On Tuesday it adopted a resolution calling for the restoration of “impartiality and reliability of the public media”.

The vote prompted PiS lawmakers to stage a sit-in at state television buildings. “There is no democracy without media pluralism or strong anti-government media, and in Poland these are the public media,” the PiS leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, told reporters at the entrance of the state television building on Tuesday evening.

Kaczyński was among those protesting, along with the former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki who was seen on social media posing for pictures with employees at the broadcaster.

Kaczyński said PiS politicians would continue the protest on rotating shifts.

“We want to make sure that there is legal order in Poland and that there are free media,” said Marek Suski, another PiS lawmaker, said on Wednesday as the sit-in continued. The former PiS culture minister Piotr Gliński said the state media reshuffle ordered by the new government was “illegal”.

“This is clearly an attack on the free media; it is a violation of the law,” he said.

The PiS government was frequently criticised by the opposition and non-profits for trying to stifle the independent media and limit freedom of expression.

The global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in 2020 that “partisan discourse and hate speech are still the rule within [Poland’s] state-owned media, which have been transformed into government propaganda mouthpieces”.