Polish government puts public media into liquidation amid dispute with president

Before you comment, this is the full announcement:

Announcement of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage

Due to the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland to suspend financing of public media, I decided to put into liquidation the companies Telewizja Polska S.A. and Polskie Radio S.A. and Polish Press Agency S.A.

In the current situation, such action will ensure the continued operation of these companies, carry out the necessary restructuring and prevent layoffs of employees in the above-mentioned companies. companies employees due to lack of financing.

The state of liquidation may be withdrawn at any time by the owner.

Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz Minister of Culture and National Heritage

And now some context from the article:

Today, Duda proposed his own alternative bill that would have maintained other government spending in the budget – such as the public sector pay rises – but did not include the funds for public media.

However, this morning, the speaker of parliament, Szymon Hołownia, who is one of the leaders of the new ruling coalition, said that he would not convene an early sitting of the house to discuss the president’s proposal, as Duda had requested.

This afternoon, before Sienkiewicz’s decision was published, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the cabinet had decided that the 3 billion zloty previously earmarked for public media would instead be spent on cancer treatment and mental healthcare for children.

Tusk added that Duda’s veto had forced the culture minister to make certain decisions, which would be done “calmly and rationally”.

However, Sienkiewicz’s decision was condemned by figures linked to PiS and to the former management of public media. Samuel Pereira, a senior editor at TVP under PiS, said that the “usurpers are trying to bypass the National Court Register” – the body responsible for validating Sinkiewicz’s previous decision.

Shortly afterwards, President Duda’s chief of staff, Marcin Mastalerek, published a statement declaring the decision to put public media into liquidation as “an admission of defeat by the government”.