There is ongoing pandemonium at the headquarters of Poland’s state broadcaster TVP after high-ranking members of the conservative PiS party, including the country’s former prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński began a sit-down protest against a purge by the new Tusk government of PiS friendly executives.
The Polish media landscape was thrown into disarray Tuesday as senior members of TVP management were dismissed due to their conservative PiS ties, resulting in broadcasting being partially curtailed on the network’s news channels.
The firings came after the station earned a reputation as being sympathetic to PiS during the recent elections as Donald Tusk pledged to commence an institutional purge of right-wing elements in the Polish establishment now that they are in power.
The already febrile situation stepped up a notch Wednesday morning as senior PiS officials were to be seen at the TVP headquarters in central Warsaw attempting to occupy the building alleging that there is a liberal plot afoot to trample on media freedom by EU-backed progressives.
Police were photographed entering the station’s Warsaw premises as Poland’s recently removed PiS PM Mateusz Morawiecki took his place among the occupiers. Defending his actions, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński stated that he and his colleagues had acted in defence of media freedom.
Influence over the TVP and state broadcasting apparatus is of major strategic importance for PiS with privately owned news channels heavily favouring Tusk and progressive parties within Poland.
PiS had to contend with heavy media bias during the recent election cycle as a financial consortium led by the Soros network purchased one of Poland’s most influential newspapers in the lead-up to the election resulting in an immediate partisan shift against the ruling conservatives.
During its eight years in power, PiS repeatedly clashed with the EU and progressive forces within and outside of Poland’s borders as Warsaw was embroiled in a rule-of-law harassment campaign resulting in the freezing of billions of funding in what PiS branded an act of financial blackmail against a sovereign country.
Tusk’s return to power has been openly welcomed by the European Commission, while many on the Polish Right have expressed their fears that liberals would fast track the country to progressivism.
