The dispute over public media in Poland continues. On Thursday, Poland’s Constitutional Court declared the changes initiated by Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz unconstitutional. Such a verdict was expected. President Andrzej Duda had already spoken weeks ago of illegal actions by the new liberal-conservative government under Donald Tusk. A registration court had already refused to register the newly appointed board members.
Public media includes Telewizja Polska, Polskie Radio and the PAP news agency. They have all been legally in liquidation or dissolution status since December 27th. But that doesn’t mean they will be closed. However, they should be fundamentally reformed. During its time in power since 2016, the PiS party has made the public media its announcement organs. In particular, the television station TVP Info and the main news in the first program TVP 1 became propaganda instruments for the right-wing nationalist party.
European law versus Polish law
In addition, the managers and board members of state-owned companies, which are financed by taxes and fees, apparently earned top salaries that are difficult to achieve on the free market. As only became known this week, TVP also rewarded commentators very well who argued in favor of the PiS.
The Constitutional Court still has this in its hands. It was one of the first courts that the PiS party politicized. For example, she appointed additional judges there and increased the total number of judges. PiS critics have long called the court just the Przyłębska Court, after its chairwoman Julia Przyłębska. Their term of office actually expired more than a year ago. However, no new chairwoman has been elected so far. These new judges are also not recognized by European courts. However, the Polish Constitutional Court had also decided that European law should not take precedence over Polish law. However, EU states undertake to recognize the judgments of the ECJ as being superior to national law.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in a particular case that the Polish Constitutional Court could not guarantee the requirements of a fair and independent judicial process – because it appointed those neo-judges at its own and other tribunals.
The new television journalists work under unsafe conditions
The Ministry of Culture now soberly declares the verdict on the media to be “erroneous”. In a statement it says: “The ruling of the Constitutional Court with regard to public radio and television broadcasters has no legal significance.” There are “judgments and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court” that confirm “that it is not an independent institution.” The verdict involved judges “who, as PiS MPs, were involved in passing changes to the broadcasting law in 2015 and 2016, which undermines their ability to remain objective in the matter.”
The “erroneous decision of the Constitutional Court” therefore has “no impact on the functioning of the legal bodies of companies that carry out the mandate of public media and on the ongoing liquidation proceedings within them”.
At TVP Info they simply carried on as before on Friday, after all they had to have another “7:30” program, the name of the main news, until the evening. The new head of TVP-Info, Paweł Moskalewicz, only said on the phone: “This verdict is simply illegal.” Because the entire court is illegal in its current composition.
For the new employees at TVP and other media who have been trying to provide a balanced and objective news program since December, the verdict also means that their work will continue in uncertain conditions and makeshift arrangements for the time being. The new TVP-Info employees are still not working at the location in downtown Warsaw, but in temporary rooms at the second large location in the south of Warsaw. However, they lack modern equipment there. Both buildings are guarded by police and security services and can only be entered after several checks. It is currently too unsafe to return to the center, says Moskalewicz. The mood is still heated. In December, former broadcaster bosses and PiS politicians occupied both buildings.