Polish president Andrzej Duda has signed off controversial amendments to the country’s Radio and Television Law that affect public service broadcasting.
Commenting on the move and quoted by Satkurier, Malgorzata Sadurska, the head of the chancellery of the president, said that President Duda “addresses with concern that public media should be characterised by reliability, honesty and objectivity”.
She added: “we observe that journalists’ own, subjective opinions very often replace objective information that should reach TV viewers or radio listeners”.
The amendments will see huge changes at the public broadcaster TVP and its radio counterpart, not least of which will be the wholesale replacement of their senior management. Janusz Daszczynski, the outgoing president of TVP, wrote an open farewell letter to the broadcaster’s employees on the day (Thursday, January 7) the amendments were signed off in which he quoted Winston Churchill by saying “this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end”.
Daszczynski had only been in the post since July 29, 2015 in what was supposed to be a four-year term. His replacement Jacek Kurski is a politician, journalist and member of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS).
Meanwhile, the EBU continues to speak out against developments in Poland. Its DG Ingrid Deltenre said: “I am dismayed by the president’s decision. Sadly, it was not unexpected. The international community has strongly opposed the introduction of this bill from the outset, when it was rushed through parliament before the end of the year. The fact that the government refused any discussion, or to accept any expert legal advice from the European Commission, Council of Europe or other media expert organisations appears to reflect its overall attitude towards European institutions and fundamental democratic values.
“What comes as a surprise to us is the underlying objective of this reform, which translates into a worrying interpretation of the public service media remit. The new regime’s ambition is to turn Polish radio and TV into media instruments for the government, and not for its citizens”.
Deltenre continued: “Should the media reform be implemented as it stands, it is doomed to fail. It is just a question of time. No government can stop the digital transformation of the media system, and the globalisation of its media organizations. Citizens will always find out the truth through new sources of information. ?It is for Polish citizens to decide whether they agree with the measures taken by their government. We hope that the full media reform planned for later this year will substantially improve the new media bill, and as always the EBU is prepared to provide all legal expertise and advice.”
EBU President Jean Paul Philippot said: “this decision is highly damaging to public media values, which have an essential role in the expression of society’s pluralism.”
“For this reason we will not compromise when it comes to editorial independence, which requires structural guarantees that no longer exist in Poland today. It is unacceptable that the mechanisms introduced over the past 20 years to ensure the independence of public service media and confine State-run media to the history books, be undermined in this way.”
