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On December 19, 2023, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Poland, dismissed the then-current state media directors and their supervisory boards, most notably those of public broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP), appointing new ones in their place.[1] The move was met with criticism and accusations of illegality by the dismissed management and the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, causing a parliamentary intervention in the TVP headquarters.[2][3]
 | |
| Initiator | Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz |
|---|---|
| Target | Telewizja Polska S.A. |
| Initiated | December 19, 2023 |
After Law and Justice won the parliamentary election in 2015, TVP reporting began to align with the PiS government's policies opposing EU federalization, illegal immigration, and 'normalizing' relations with Russia. During its 8 year rule, TVP consistently praised the PiS government and disparaged the opposition. It was widely regarded by national and international media watchdogs[which?] to be extremely biased and highly selective. In the lead-up to the 2023 election, British newspaper Guardian described TVP as a propaganda arm of PiS, while the Polish opposition referred to it as a factory of hate.[4][5] The reform and depoliticization of the state media became a campaign promise of the main opposition party, the Civic Coalition, which included it in its list of "100 concrete promises for the first 100 days of government."[6]
After winning the 2023 parliamentary election, the October 15 Coalition, consisting of the Civic Coalition, Poland 2050, Polish People's Party and The Left, included plans to reform state media in their coalition agreement.[7]
On December 14, citing journalistic freedom and independence, a protest of the Warsaw club of Gazeta Polska "in defense of free media" was held in front of one of the TVP buildings. attended by employees of the state-owned station, as well as Law and Justice politicians.[8][9]
On the same day, at the request of a group of Law and Justice deputies, the Constitutional Tribunal banned the possibility of removals and changes to the TVP and Polish Radio board of directors until the hearing scheduled for January 16, 2024.[10][11] This ban, however, was deemed as non-binding by some lawyers and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage itself.[12][13]
On December 19, 2023, the Sejm passed a resolution on "restoring the legal order and the impartiality and integrity of the public media and the Polish Press Agency" with 244 votes in favor. There were 84 votes against and 16 abstentions.[14] More than 100 Law and Justice deputies did not participate in the vote, having instead gone to the TVP headquarters to protest the change.
On the same day, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz dismissed the authorities of public media, including TVP.[13]
On December 20, Piotr Zemła [pl], the newly appointed head of TVP's supervisory board, arrived at the television headquarters on Woronicza Street. He was met by Law and Justice MPs and TVP employees occupying the building, who questioned his authority and the legality of the decision to change the station's authorities.[15] Due to the turmoil at the building, Joanna Borowiak, a Law and Justice MP, was hospitalized. Jacek Sasin blamed the incident on "a person accompanying the new director", while Szymon Hołownia, serving as the Marshal of the Sejm, indicated that it may have been done by a security employee.[16]
TVP Info went off air at 11:18:31 a.m. CET, with both the terrestrial broadcast and the online stream instead variously showing TVP1's programming, TVP Polonia's programming, and repeats of Ranczo. TVP3, TVP World, and TVP Parlament (and for some reasons Alfa TVP) also went off air, with TVP3's national programming being switched to that of TVP2 (TVP3's regional outputs would continue unabated however) and programming for TVP World being changed to that of TVP Polonia, while TVP Parlament's programming was not switched to that of any other TVP channel and so that particular channel was effectively taken off air completely. People attempting to visit the official websites for TVP Info, TVP3, TVP World, or TVP Parlament were instead redirected to the main TVP website. News programs that would normally air on TVP1 (Teleexpress, Wiadomości) and TVP2 (Panorama) were instead replaced by fillers featuring each channel's respective logos.[17][18][19][20][21]
At 12:17 p.m., Adrian Borecki, a Wiadomości journalist, interrupted the broadcast of the Agrobiznes program on TVP1 to inform that channel's viewers of the situation. He announced that a special edition of Wiadomości would continue to air on TVP1 from that point until "the very end". Half a minute later, the broadcast was interrupted and replaced by a standby sequence of the TVP1 logo.[22]
Sometime after 2 p.m., Samuel Pereira [pl], the head of TVP Info, began a live stream on its YouTube channel. The stream featured the TVP Info broadcast, recorded with a phone camera, that would have been airing if the channel had not gone off the air. The stream was taken down in less than half an hour.[23][24][19]
A group of IT specialists from TVP secured the new management's access to the broadcaster's social media, removing the role of administrator from its key representatives. TVP Info's Twitter account, managed personally by Samuel Pereira, remained under the control of the old management despite changes in other social media accounts.[25]
At 7:30 p.m., instead of the usual Wiadomości program, a short announcement was broadcast on TVP1 (and, by extension, TVP Info) in which presenter Marek Czyż announced that what he declared to be "unbiased news" would be returning and that the next day's broadcast of Wiadomości would go ahead as normal.[26] At the same time, former TVP presenters appeared in a special edition of Wiadomości which, while using the program's usual studio, was broadcast on Telewizja Republika.[27]
In the evening, TVP began sending dismissal emails to some of its employees.[28]
On December 21, a new program was announced to replace Wiadomości, set to be broadcast during the same 7:30 p.m. timeslot as its predecessor. The new program's name was kept a closely guarded secret until the first broadcast, whereupon it was revealed to be 19.30. The program's intro and theme music had already been prepared before the takeover.[29][30] Teleexpress and Panorama remained off air on December 21 and reportedly were to remain so until TVP's post-takeover operations were fully stabilized.[31]
Members of the Law and Justice party claimed that the takeover had been done illegally.[32] A similar standpoint was taken by the Law and Justice-controlled National Media Council, who described the takeover as "an attack on public media."[33]
The government claims that the takeover was possible as a result of a legislative loophole, where the Minister of Culture was able to apply the Commercial Companies Code directly.[1]
The president Andrzej Duda called on the Council of Ministers to respect the legal order.[34] Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded by claiming that the measures were intended to restore legal order and decency in public life, in line with the president's intentions.[35]
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