Current:Home > BackPoland’s new government moves to free state media from previous team’s political control-InfoLens
Poland’s new government moves to free state media from previous team’s political control
View Date:2024-12-23 16:30:30
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new pro-European Union government said Wednesday that it had changed the directors of state television, radio and the government-run news agency as it embarked on the path of freeing publicly-owned media from the political control of the previous nationalist conservative administration.
The Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which took office last week, has made it a priority to restore objectivity and free expression in state media, which the previous government, under the Law and Justice party, used as aggressive propaganda tools, attacking Tusk and the opposition and spreading its euroskeptic views.
The new government’s first steps toward a return to media freedom were met with protest by Law and Justice. Party leader Jarosław Kaczyński and many lawmakers occupied buildings housing the offices of state-run television TVP in the hopes that their supporters would come out to demonstrate in big numbers.
While that didn’t happen, some of the Law and Justice officials still hadn’t left the TVP facilities. But there was no police presence or signs of any violence.
On Tuesday, Polish lawmakers adopted a resolution presented by Tusk’s government calling for the restoration of “legal order, objectivity and fairness” of TVP, Polish Radio and the PAP news agency.
Following the resolution, Poland’s new culture minister, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, replaced the heads and the supervisory boards of state media, which chose new management.
The new head of TVP’s supervisory board, Piotr Zemła, a lawyer, came to the broadcaster’s headquarters on Wednesday.
In the first sign of change, the all-news TVP INFO channel, one of the previous government’s main propaganda tools, ceased to broadcast on air and over the internet on Wednesday morning.
Earlier this week, the previous ruling team called a rally at the state television building to protest any planned changes, but only a few hundred people turned up.
President Andrzej Duda, who was an ally of the previous government, has warned that he won’t accept moves that he believes to be against the law. However, his critics have long accused him of violating the Polish Constitution and other laws as he tried to support the policies of the Law and Justice party.
The government took office last week and began reversing policies of the previous administration that many in Poland found divisive.
Parties that make up the new government collectively won the majority of votes in the Oct. 15 election. They have vowed to jointly govern under the leadership of Tusk, who served as prime minister in 2007-2014 and was head of the European Council in 2014-2019.
veryGood! (5495)
Related
- California teen pleads guilty in Florida to making hundreds of ‘swatting’ calls across the US
- Google fires 28 employees after protest against contract with Israeli government
- Google is combining its Android software and Pixel hardware divisions to more broadly integrate AI
- Coalition to submit 900,000 signatures to put tough-on-crime initiative on California ballot
- Ben Affleck and His Son Samuel, 12, Enjoy a Rare Night Out Together
- Most student loan borrowers have delayed major life events due to debt, recent poll says
- Republicans file lawsuit challenging Evers’s partial vetoes to literacy bill
- Arizona Coyotes to move to Salt Lake City after being sold to Utah Jazz owners
- Target will be closed on Thanksgiving: Here’s when stores open on Black Friday
- Days-long eruption of Indonesia's Ruang volcano forces hundreds to evacuate as sky fills with red ash
Ranking
- Chiefs block last-second field goal to save unbeaten record, beat Broncos
- Dubai flooding hobbles major airport's operations as historic weather event brings torrential rains to UAE
- Days-long eruption of Indonesia's Ruang volcano forces hundreds to evacuate as sky fills with red ash
- Coalition to submit 900,000 signatures to put tough-on-crime initiative on California ballot
- The Daily Money: Mattel's 'Wicked' mistake
- Arizona Coyotes to move to Salt Lake City after being sold to Utah Jazz owners
- Passenger finds snake on Japanese bullet train, causing rare delay on high-speed service
- New report highlights Maui County mayor in botched wildfire response
Recommendation
-
Texas man accused of supporting ISIS charged in federal court
-
Canadian police charge 9 suspects in historic $20 million airport gold heist
-
Indianapolis man charged with murder in fatal shootings of 3 at apartment complex
-
Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani’s Surprise Performance Is the Sweet Escape You Need Right Now
-
Texas man accused of supporting ISIS charged in federal court
-
Brittany Cartwright Claps Back at Comments Her Boobs Make Her Look Heavier
-
When does summer start? Mark your calendars for the longest day of the year in 2024
-
2 more endangered ferrets cloned from animal frozen in the 1980s: Science takes time