Polish state media bosses sacked as populists occupy TV buildings

WARSAW: Poland´s pro-EU government on Wednesday launched a reform of state media and sacked their management, with public broadcasts interrupted and right-wing lawmakers staging a sit-in to protest the changes.

The shakeup comes a week after Prime Minister Donald Tusk took power after eight years of rule by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party. State-owned media under the PiS were regularly accused of biased reporting, transmitting government propaganda and launching verbal attacks on the opposition.

The culture ministry said in a statement the chairmen and boards of the state-owned television, radio, and news agency had been removed in a bid to restore the “impartiality” of public media. Shortly after the announcement, state news channel TVP´s regular broadcast was suspended, with only the television logo visible on TV screens. The TVP Info news channel´s website was also taken down.

The new ruling bloc on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on the restoration of “impartiality and reliability of the public media”.

But PiS lawmakers largely boycotted the parliamentary vote, staging a sit-in in the state television buildings that continued throughout the night into Wednesday. Following the changes in state media management, PiS chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party´s most prominent politician and for eight years widely regarded as Poland´s de facto leader, was seen entering the state television building.