2024-05-09 19:56 update: 2024-05-10, 12:56
Maciej Swirski. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
A motion was submitted to the lower house of parliament to have the head of the Polish media regulator KRRiT brought before the State Tribunal, the culture minister has announced.
Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz told a press conference on Thursday that Maciej Swirski was facing allegations of illegal activities concerning the financing of public media and biased treatment of private media.
Sienkiewicz mentioned that a "50-page indictment" had been prepared as the actual justification for Swirski to face the State Tribunal, which handles cases of alleged wrongdoing by people holding high public office.
In December, Sienkiewicz launched changes to the country's public media in a bid to "de-politicise" them after the eight-year rule of the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government.
KRRiT protested against the motion in a comment later on Thursday.
"We take it as an unprecedented attempt to intimidate a constitutional body and to exert pressure in order to elicit resolutions that would be favourable to the government," the media watchdog wrote in a statement.
Critics of the former Law and Justice government claim that during its eight-year rule in 2015-2023, PiS had managed to politicise a vast array of state institutions, including the KRRiT. The media watchdog remained silent when PiS practically turned public media into what the then opposition as well as a number of international rights organisations described as party propaganda mouthpieces. Members of KRRiT, which is a constitutional body, cannot be easily recalled. (PAP)
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