Ex-ruling party MPs continue protest at PAP

The Law and Justice (PiS) MPs demand a legal justification for the dismissal of the agency’s president and supervisory board.

Wojciech Surmacz, PAP’s president, was dismissed from his post on Wednesday morning along with the supervisory board by the culture minister, Bartlomej Sienkiewicz, as part of a sweep by the new government through public media which also led to the dismissals of the heads of television broadcaster TVP and Polish Radio.

The culture minister has appointed Marek Blonski the new PAP president, until now the head of PAP's works council, a decision that is disputed by Wojciech Surmacz, who says he is the only legal president of PAP and that the minister's decision is void.

Blonski also dismissed the editor-in-chief and his two deputies, one of whom tried to enter PAP offices on Saturday morning but was not allowed in by the newly-hired security.

The PiS MPs agree with Surmacz and have continued their protest, which they call 'an MP intervention,' since Wednesday, barring Blonski's access to management rooms.

Blonski said he had hired a private security agency "to ensure security" due to the presence of "unauthorised persons" on PAP premises, PAP reported on Saturday.

The decision was criticised by the PiS MPs present at the site, who said Blonski is not a legal president and therefore cannot make such decisions.

Later on Saturday, Blonski announced that Pawel Kostrzewa, a PAP employee, had been appointed to the press agency's management board, apart from himself.

Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek, a former foreign minister in the PiS government, told the Catholic broadcaster Radio Maryja on Saturday that his party's MPs will continue their protest at PAP throughout Christmas.

Explaining the rationale for the sweeping changes, the new pro-EU government, which took office in mid-December,  explained that it wanted to rid public media of bias and restore neutrality in news coverage, accusing PiS of having turned public media into party propaganda outlets during its eight-year rule.

On Tuesday, the Sejm, lower house of parliament, adopted a resolution which stated that parliament "considers unacceptable the continued open violation of the law and breach by public radio and television entities as well as by the Polish Press Agency of the right to information and the principle of political pluralism stemming from the provisions of the Constitution."

The culture minister, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, quoted the Sejm resolution as the reason behind his decisions.

Poland's former opposition parties, which formed a coalition government last week, have for years accused the ex-ruling party of having politicised state-owned media. They claim PiS has turned the media into a party mouthpiece. The new ruling coalition says it aims to reverse those changes." (PAP)
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