The head of the National Broadcasting Council wants the prosecutor's office to investigate the liquidation process of TVP and PR

The head of the National Broadcasting Council, Agnieszka Glapiak, wants the prosecutor's office to investigate whether the process of liquidation of TVP and Polskie Radio is conducted in accordance with the law. Public media have been in liquidation since December 2023, which the Ministry of Culture justified at that time with the need to secure the continued operation of the companies.

In a statement published on Wednesday, Glapiak assessed that “in December 2023, public media were illegally taken over”. “Exactly two years later, we are dealing with a legal fiction. Therefore, as the chairwoman of the National Broadcasting Council, I have an obligation to react. I decided to send a notification to the prosecutor's office to investigate whether the persons responsible for running the companies in liquidation: Polish Television, Polish Radio and Polish Radio Regional Broadcasting Stations actually perform their duties or only maintain an apparent state of affairs,” we read in the statement of the chairwoman of the National Broadcasting Council.

As she added, “the prosecutor's office should also clarify whether there has been any violation of the constitutional order of the state and unlawful influence on the activities of a constitutional body, such as the National Broadcasting Council.”

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In Glapiak's opinion, putting public media into liquidation “gives the impression of an apparent action.” “The liquidation process caused irreparable financial, organizational and image losses. Public media lost hundreds of thousands of viewers and listeners,” she emphasized.

The head of the National Broadcasting Council expects that “the prosecutor's office will reliably explain whether the liquidation process is carried out in accordance with the law or whether we are dealing with activities that can only serve to maintain a legal fiction.”

On December 19, 2023, the Sejm adopted a resolution “on the restoration of legal order and the impartiality and reliability of the public media and the Polish Press Agency”, calling on the State Treasury to take corrective actions. A day later, the Ministry of Culture announced that the then Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, as the body exercising the ownership rights of the State Treasury, acting on the basis of the provisions of the Commercial Companies Code, dismissed on December 19 the current presidents of the management boards of Telewizja Polska, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency and their supervisory boards. He appointed new supervisory boards of these companies, which appointed new management boards.

On December 23, President Andrzej Duda announced that he had vetoed the budget-related law prepared by the new government, which provided, among other things, funds for public media for the next year. After the veto, on December 27, Minister Sienkiewicz decided to put TVP, Polskie Radio and PAP into liquidation. He made a similar decision on December 29 in relation to 17 regional companies of Polish Radio stations.

“In the current situation, such action will allow us to secure the continued operation of these companies, carry out the necessary restructuring and prevent layoffs of employees employed in the above-mentioned companies due to lack of financing,” Sienkiewicz wrote in the press release at the time.

Until the publication of the text, Polish Television and Polish Radio did not comment on the matter. (PAP)

(we plan to continue the topic)

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