Suddenly the signal from Poland’s public broadcaster was cut off on Wednesday morning. The logo appears on the screen. Later, one of the most important national television channels turned to a nature documentary featuring, among other things, hungry polar bears. Behind the scenes, rapid change was taking place in Polish society. The new Tusk government fired the radio’s chiefs on Wednesday, and the new administration stood with police on the doorstep of the headquarters, where parliamentarians from the former ruling party, PiS, had barricaded themselves in protest.

Anyone who has switched to public broadcaster TVP’s channels in recent years has ended up watching tube into the world of the political party Law and Justice (PiS). In the news, Poland is attacked by Brussels, Berlin, illegal immigration and “gay ideology”. Opposition leader Donald Tusk, now back as Prime Minister, was portrayed as the devil, sometimes literally: a red glow was often placed around his person. TVP has said nothing but good things about the PiS government.

If it were up to the new Tusk government, Polish TV viewers would be offered a completely different news program from Wednesday or Thursday at 7.30pm. “We are causing an avalanche,” Bogdan Zdrojewski, head of the Polish House of Commons’ media committee, said of the proposed changes.

“Depoliticization” of TVP

On Tuesday afternoon, the House of Commons adopted a resolution to reform public broadcasting. Prime Minister Tusk is thus fulfilling his election promise to “depoliticize” the public broadcaster.

Andrei Bobinsky, director of the think tank Politika Insight, says reforming the broadcaster has great symbolic importance. “When someone else reads the news, that’s the moment people feel the change.”

“We have done worse propaganda than in the 1970s” or under communism, former radio director Marcin Wolski said after the October election. When PiS came to power in 2015, it quickly took over the public broadcaster, which, in addition to TVP, consists of Radio Polski and the PAP news agency. Directors and journalists were dismissed and the radio became the mouthpiece of the government. A former journalist said in 2021 that TVP has since had four pillars: “Sports, entertainment shows, feature films and propaganda.”

“Defense democracy”

On Tuesday evening, about a hundred PiS members of parliament went to the TVP headquarters in protest. They spent the night there. Among them was party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who described it as a “defense of democracy” and insisted on media pluralism.

The parliamentarians took selfies with TVP journalists, including in the radio control room. Ironically, PiS politicians have confirmed precisely what their critics have been arguing for some time, namely that TVP is their broadcaster: TVPisas the broadcaster became known colloquially in Poland.

It was also important that only PiS-friendly media were given the opportunity to report on events closely, loudly chanting “free media.” Journalists from other media were allowed to observe the parliamentarians only from behind the large windows of the headquarters.

Practical importance to TASK

Bobinski says: It is a test of strength between the new government and the old government. “PiS wants to show that it is defending institutions to which it believes it is entitled.” For Tusk, reform of the broadcaster is not only symbolic, but also has practical importance: TVP’s partisan reporting could undermine many of the new government’s reforms.

Bobinski: PiS is playing the long game. The first six months are essential for any new government. Tusk needs to show he can get things done. PiS can poison social debate through the channel.

Adam Szynoul, a media researcher at the University of Wrocław, emphasizes the importance of reforms in public broadcasting. “It is very important that decent journalistic standards return.”

TVP is a free-to-air broadcaster only

Poland has a broader television offer than just TVP. The public broadcaster has as large a market share as the commercial (news) channels Polsat and TVN. Together they account for about three-quarters of the programming. But TVP is the only broadcaster that can be watched and received for free in every corner of Poland. According to Zainul, the audience consists mainly of older Poles who generally do not look for alternative sources of news.

What Tusk is doing is not new, says Politika Insight’s Bobinski. “Every government to date has reformed broadcasting, and there has always been a relationship between the broadcaster and the government. But under PiS this has taken extreme proportions.

There is one outstanding question about the reforms, Bobinski says: “How can they achieve this within the framework of the law?” The Law and Justice Party has raised several legal obstacles to make this difficult. For example, the Constitutional Court (an extension of the previous government) last week banned the dismissal of the management of broadcasting organizations. President and PiS ally Duda can veto any legislative changes.

Tusk takes the offensive. He described the Constitutional Court ruling as non-binding, and his minister simply fired the broadcast chiefs. The new government is not impressed by the protests. In response to the statement that some journalists want to chain themselves to the fireplace, the head of the Media Committee Zdrojewski said: “Just let them sit there.” Bobinski believes that the coming days are decisive. Not only for TVP, but also for other institutions that Tusk is working to reform. “Right before Christmas, so everyone is talking about it at the holiday dinner table.”