WARSAW, Poland (ChurchMilitant.com) – An assault on public media is taking place in Poland since the leftist coalition has taken over the government.
Donald Tusk
The story is underreported in non-Polish media and accurate and unbiased details of the attack are hard to come by. But based on Polish internet sources and contacts on the ground in Poland, Church Militant has managed to gather information about the developing situation.
The new government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, appear to have attempted to take control of TVP (Poland’s public television service), Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency (PAP). Tusk, described by mainstream media as a “centrist,” is the founder of the left-wing Civic Platform Party.
Tusk, who took power on Oct. 13, vowed to make radical changes at various levels in the country. On the campaign trail in September 2023, he said, “We have a very precise procedure prepared after we win the elections, and after the government is formed, no law will have to be changed. I will not have to wait for any signature from President Duda overnight.”
The Takeover
It appears he has started with the media.
According to Telewizja Republika, a privately operated media, on the night of Dec. 19, the Sejm (the lower house of the Polish Parliament) passed a resolution under which the takeover of public media began. The media outlet reported 344 deputies voted overall, with 244 in favor, 84 against and 16 abstaining.
According to Polish law, the presidents of Polish television, TVP and Polish radio, are chosen by the National Media Council. But Tusk disregarded the law, acted as though the resolution carried the power of law, and dismissed the media presidents on Dec. 20. Moments later, the TVP signal was turned off.
Tusk and his cronies deployed police and security guards to the TV stations to expedite their plan. But when their forceful attempts to take over public media failed, the newly appointed minister of culture, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, liquidated TVP, Polish Radio and PAP.
Reactions
Polish notables have responded to the situation.
In a New Year’s speech, President Andrzej Duda, a member of the Law and Justice Party, addressed the situation. He granted that the new government has the right to make changes in the media, but everything must be done in accordance with the law and the Polish Constitution.
He pointed out that resolutions do not carry the power of law. They are “mere opinions and have no legal force.” He called on the current left-leaning coalition to respect the “principles of a democratic state of law” and to respect citizens “regardless of their political views.”
As Duda spoke, a portrait of the late conservative president, Lech Kaczyński, was visible in the background. Kaczyński was killed, along with many other members of the Polish government, in 2010 in a horrific and still unexplained air crash in Smolensk, Russia. He was Poland’s most powerful politician and a longstanding opponent of Tusk.
The former prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, a member of the Law and Justice Party, announced his disdain for the takeovers on X on Dec. 22, 2023: “The new minister of culture is forcibly and illegally changing the management boards of the public media,” he posted.
Urgent Plea
On Dec. 27, 2023, the president of PAP, Wojciech Surmacz, released a letter appealing to journalists of the world regarding the “unprecedented” situation. He said, “There has been an unlawful, brutal, forceful attempt to seize control of the PAP.”
Wojciech Surmacz (Photo: PAP/Kalbar)
In the letter, he explained that on the night of Dec. 19, 2023, Sienkiewicz, Tusk’s new minister of culture, dismissed him from the position of chairman of the board of directors, in violation of Polish law.
On Dec. 20, a new board of directors, appointed by the Tusk regime, appeared at the company’s headquarters, seized his office and cut off his electronic access. The newly appointed Tusk administrators, accompanied by security guards, were “aggressive,” according to Surmacz, and the situation was “growing dangerous.”
He called the police, after which he regained access to his office and electronic access. He added,
Today [Dec. 27], the PAP building is open and free of illegal security guards, but a new illegal management is trying to run the company. Journalists and employees of other company departments are being illegally fired. People are terrorized, frightened, and unable to withstand the enormous psychological pressure. New acts of violence are unofficially being announced.
Surmacz ended the letter by calling on “all media and journalistic organizations to stand in professional solidarity and come forward to defend freedom of speech and respect for the law.”
Church Militant has reached out to Surmacz for clarification of the ongoing situation but has not yet received a reply.
More Takeovers?
Amid the chaos, Tusk is claiming he is “restoring media to the Polish people.” Also noteworthy, according to sources, is that during the media blackouts on Dec. 20, Tusk made a migration pact with the European Union to relocate migrants into Poland. Morawiecki condemned the pact, adding, “I don’t want [Poland] to be destroyed by the Muslim migrants coming from the Middle East or from Africa.”
Indications are that public media is just the beginning when it comes to the takeover of state institutions in Poland. Privately owned media outlets report that Tusk is also threatening that “strong people” will take out the presidents of the National Bank of Poland and the Constitutional Tribunal, the court that resolves disputes regarding State institutions.
Poles have been protesting against the present government in various cities, including Warsaw, Kraków, Lublin, Wrocław, Łódź, Białystok and Poznań.
A private citizen in Poland urged, through Church Militant, that journalists around the world spread the news about what is happening in his country. Various forces are preventing its dissemination, he said.
He also urged Catholics to pray. “If Poland gets steamrolled, there will be darkness for Europe for a long time,” he said. “If Catholics started praying for Poland all around the world, there would be hope to fight back.”
According to sources on the ground, TVP is still not operational.
This is a developing story and Church Militant will continue to provide coverage.