Culture minister decides to put public mass media companies into liquidation
Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, the Polish culture minister, has decided to put the Polish public television TVP, the Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency PAP companies into liquidation.
The culture minister explained on Wednesday that he had made the decision following the president's decision to suspend the financing of public mass media.
"In the current situation such a move will make it possible to secure the further functioning of the three companies, to conduct their necessary restructuring and to prevent a situation in which their employees will be dismissed due to the lack of financing," reads a statement published by the culture minister on the X platform.
"The companies can be withdrawn from the state of liquidation by the owner at any moment," reads the statement signed by Minister Sienkiewicz.
Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, vetoed the budget-related bill for 2024 on Saturday, criticising the changes the new coalition government was making to the public media.
"I have decided to veto the budget-related bill for 2024, which included PLN 3 billion (EUR 690 million) for public media," Duda wrote on the X platform on Saturday afternoon. "There may be no consent to it given the blatant violation of the Constitution and the principles of a democratic state of law."
The president was referring to the swift changes that the new coalition government made to public media management on Wednesday, which caused outrage in the ex-ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), of which Duda is considered an ally.
PiS says the management of public media companies can only be dismissed by the National Media Council, a body set up when PiS was in power. The new ruling coalition accuses PiS of manning the body with party loyalists and turning public media into PiS propaganda outlets.
"An attempt to finance public media through a budget related law (by the parliamentary majority) is in the current situation unacceptable," Duda continued.
The budget-related law is an important piece of legislation for the Donald Tusk government as it fulfils a number of the new ruling coalition's election promises, including a 30-percent pay rise for teachers and a 20-percent wage increase for public sector employees.
On Wednesday, President Duda filed with the Sejm (lower house of parliament - PAP) his own draft related to the raises for teachers and other expenditures planned in the budget-related law, but with no funding included for public media. (PAP)
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