It took Poland’s national broadcaster almost 24 hours to suggest that the opposition might form a government after last weekend’s election. When it did, the banner headline on its news channel was still that the ruling party had won.
The admission came after the most caustic campaign in decades, yet the time it took was of little surprise in a country whose state media has been turned into the mouthpiece of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party. In the run-up to Sunday’s vote, the prime-time news show ran headlines declaring the opposition would take away money from Poles and leader Donald Tusk would destroy democracy.
Removing the ruling party’s grip on Telewizja Polska SA is now a first vital stepping-stone in restoring democratic institutions the EU has excoriated Poland for undermining. It also demonstrates the extent of the challenge for Tusk and his future governing coalition to unpick the power grab that runs deep into the state.
Photo: Reuters
During PiS’ eight-year rule, party loyalists have been parachuted into state-owned companies, the central bank and courts, prompting the EU to withhold more than 35 billion euros (US$36.9 billion) in aid for Poland. Tusk, a former Polish prime minister and European Council president, has said his top priority is to mend ties with the rest of the bloc and release the money.
During the campaign, PiS helped depict Tusk as a puppet of Germany with ties to Russia.
Polish state television “clearly promoted the ruling party and its policies, while demonstrating open hostility toward the opposition and casting the most prominent opposition leader as a threat to national security,” the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitored the election, said.
Late last month, Tusk told a rally in Bydgoszcz, northern Poland, that his party would need “exactly 24 hours” to turn what he described as the ruling-party television back into a public broadcaster. That is easier said than done.
The management of the state television is handpicked by the Polish National Media Council, a body stacked with PiS’ appointees for a fixed term that ends in 2028.
Any attempts to change the legislation to shorten their tenure is likely to face a veto from Polish President Andrzej Duda, a former PiS lawmaker.
Until last year, the state TV was run by Jacek Kurski, a political strategist and self-described “bull terrier” of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, PiS leader and the eminence grise of Poland. On his watch, the broadcaster was transformed into an “instrument of propaganda” for the government, said Reporters Without Borders.
PiS and its allies were given 80 percent of political coverage on state TV, according to second-quarter monitoring figures shared by Polish national broadcasting council with Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a group of European press freedom organizations.
The remaining 20 percent went to the opposition and was “overwhelmingly negative,” MFRR said following its mission to Warsaw last month.
PiS won the most votes in Sunday’s election, but fell short of a majority in parliament. Tusk’s Civic Platform and its allies have the numbers to form the next government, a result that was clear from the first exit poll and has reverberated across Europe.
On Wednesday, the day after official results confirmed the opposition won parliamentary majority, the state broadcaster’s news channel had changed its headline.
“7,640,854 Poles Chose Law and Justice,” it read.
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