The new government is actively reforming the country’s security forces, conducting investigations against its predecessors, and has now taken over the public media.
On Wednesday, Poland’s new government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk decided to return to the control of the authorities the state television and radio companies from the hands of supporters of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which was defeated in the parliamentary elections on October 15. .
As Politico writes, this decision is a small part of a wider revolution taking place in Poland today. In general, the country’s new parliament has created special commissions to investigate the actions of the former government, which has been in power since 2015. In addition, there is active unrest among the heads of Poland’s law enforcement agencies.
Furthermore, on Wednesday, two prominent PiS politicians received prison sentences for crimes committed during the party’s brief leadership from 2005 to 2007.
Media control and bribery
As is well known, public television TVP, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency (PAP) became objects of strict political control soon after the PiS party came to power in 2015. As a result, Poland has fallen sharply in the world rankings of media freedom.
According to Western experts, it is this media that has contributed greatly to PiS, as well as to President Andrzej Duda, to change the results of the 2019 parliamentary elections and 2020 presidential elections.
By the way, Polish state media strongly supports PiS in the current parliamentary election campaign. Before the election, the government spent more than 2 billion zlotys (465 million euros) on TVP and more than 7 billion from 2017 to 2022. So Tusk and his coalition government, according to Politico, control these institutions .
Extreme changes
However, on the morning of December 20, the new Minister of Culture Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz fired the management of TVP, Polish Radio and PAP. It was preceded by a parliamentary decision to restore “citizens’ access to reliable information, the functioning of public media, as well as ensuring their independence, impartiality and pluralism.”
After the decision of the Minister of Culture, the police took control of the media area, and the previous management was blocked from entering the buildings.
As a result, the 24-hour news channel TVP Info briefly went off the air and began broadcasting the series, and the main public television channel TVP1 only broadcast its logo for 10 minutes. instead of the usual lunch program.
PiS representatives, who managed to live in the TVP headquarters in Warsaw, tried to block the changes in media management. They were even joined by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of PiS and de facto leader of Poland from 2015 until this year’s elections.
“This is a defense of democracy. Every democracy should have a strong anti-government media,” he said Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, when confronted by anti-PiS protesters on Wednesday, an angry Kaczynski told one of them: “Be careful you don’t end up in jail, you little shit.”
Effective cleaning
It is worth noting that Polish public media is financed by a mandatory license fee paid by the public. According to the charter, the media must be free.
However, after the 2015 election, the PiS party insisted that state media was needed as a counterbalance to private television and newspapers, which generally favored the opposition.
The loss of control over the mainstream media was met with extreme severity by the PiS party.
“The Tusk government is continuing its plan to take over the public media – in defiance of the law. The Tusk administration has trampled on the basic principles of democracy,” said Beata Szydlo, a former PiS prime minister and now a member of the European Parliament.
But the new ruling coalition was unmoved.
“Good morning, free media,” said Robert Biedroń, a left-wing MEP in Tusk’s coalition.
In addition, many other state-controlled corporations, run by managers loyal to PiS, are preparing for purges. In recent days, the parliament has created special commissions that will investigate past abuses, such as contracts during the COVID era and the spending of 70 million zlotys on the 2020 elections, which was not authorized by parliament
On Tuesday, Tusk appointed new heads of the main intelligence and security agencies accused of supporting PiS and spying on party opponents.
“Fasten your seat belts,” Tusk announced on December 19.
Moreover, on Wednesday, December 20, the court found two prominent PiS deputies – Mariusz Kaminski, the former minister of the security service, and his deputy Maciej Wonsik – guilty of abuse of power in 2007.
New Justice Minister Adam Bodnar said: “We are all equal before the law and bound to obey it… Only an independent court can plead guilty. This is the essence of the rule of law.”
New Correspondent.net on Telegram and WhatsApp. Subscribe to our channels Athletistic and WhatsApp
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.