Reporters Without Borders: Tusk’s media reform was necessary

The controversial changes in the public media by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government were necessary, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who added that the government needs to be more transparent and predictable when it comes to its changes in the media landscape.

Last month, days after assuming office, Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz (Civic Platform, EPP) replaced the management of the Polish public media and put the media companies in the state of liquidation, which raised questions over the legality of those steps.

The changes in the media met with fierce backlash from the Law and Justice (PiS, ECR) party, which lost power in Poland to Donald Tusk’s camp (EPP/S&D/Renew/Left). Citing media freedom, PiS accused the new cabinet of dismantling the rule of law in Poland.

Still, RSF supported the move of the new Tusk government.

“We understand that the Polish government had to act quickly, and there are no international best practices on the matter”, Pavol Szalai, Head of the European Union-Balkans Desk at the RSF, told Euractiv.

He added that according to RSF, TVP was not a media but a propaganda organ for the former far-right PiS government, whose leadership can not be defended in the context of the takeover that happened within the Polish media.

Nevertheless, Szalai emphasised the need for the Polish government to be more transparent and predictable when it comes to its changes in the Polish media landscape.

“In this context, it is all the more important to be as transparent and predictable as possible in order to recreate trust in the media”, adding that it would be important to submit a roadmap involving experts, civil society and political parties.

According to him, Tusk’s government has a “historic opportunity to make progress in press freedom in Poland.”

Restoring public media independence

Under the Polish constitution, the function of the Polish media regulator is performed by the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT).

For RSF, the independence of the media must be restored by returning to the KRRiT its former powers.

The KRRiT was in charge of selecting the leadership of the public media. But in 2016, the PiS gave this power to the National Media Council, staffed by people close to the PiS government, which the then-independent Constitutional Tribunal deemed unconstitutional.

RSF advocates a dissolution of the National Media Council to reinstate the KRRiT back, albeit with some reforms the situation before PiS was not perfect either.

According to RSF, the KRRiT has to be more independent and the governance of public media needs a complete overhaul including more transparency and greater involvement of civil society and experts in both the KRRiT’s decision-making process and in the selection of the leadership of public media.

Commission approves Tusk’s reforms

Donald Tusk’s government pledged to bring back the democratic standards in Poland after the former PiS cabinet had sparred with Brussels over controversial judicial reforms and appointments, among other things.

“I am very pleased that the Polish authorities are determined to restore the rule of law in Poland, to ensure full compliance of their legislation not only with the Polish constitution but also with the requirements of EU law,” EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told reporters in Warsaw on Friday (19 January).

“The Commission stands ready to support the efforts made by the Polish government on the basis of its recommendations to strengthen the rule of law in the country,” an EU source also told Euractiv.

The Polish Constitutional Tribunal ruled last week that the government changes in public media were illegal, as they were conducted with the omission of a regular legislative track.

Read more: Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal: Tusk’s changes to public media ‘illegal’

The legal basis for Sienkiewicz’s changes was the Polish Commercial Code, which, according to the Tribunal, cannot dissolve or place the public media into liquidation, nor to replace their management.

However, according to the EU source, the Commission’s position on the Constitutional Tribunal is well known, with a case currently pending before the EU Court of Justice regarding its political independence from the PiS government.

‘Political gangsterism’

PiS MEP Ryszard Legutko told Euractiv he was “not surprised” by the Commission’s reaction to the Tusk government’s recent takeover of Polish media.

“The Commission is an extremely partisan institution and therefore is delighted with Donald Tusk’s policies, be they scandalous and unacceptable in every respect – not only from the point of view of law but also of common decency,” he said.

What Tusk and his government are doing “is political gangsterism, but the Commission likes it very much,” according to Legutko.

“This shows the degree of demoralisation of the EU institutions, which have illegally gained too much power and have become a vehicle of the leftist mainstream attempting to marginalise all the parties that do not agree with it.”

(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com, Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)