TUSK’S LIBERAL ADMINISTRATION ATTACKS POLAND’S CONSTITUTION AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH

The Polish media market, even across eight years of conservative rule, remained dominated by left‑liberal circles. Thirty-five years after the 1989 transformation, due to the lack of a thorough reckoning with the autocratic past, ownership structures and network ties remain rooted in the dependencies of the communist and directly post-communist establishment. This is particularly evident in the case of the TVN station (now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) as well as the current public media. Additionally, media with German globalist capital (Bauer Media Group, Axel Springer) hold a significant market share, typically acquired in the 1990s, in the absence in Poland — to this day — of regulations limiting foreign broadcasters’ share in the media market, as is common in Germany, France or most European states.

In that context, the first move by the Tusk administration was to seize control over public television stations, radio, and the Polish Press Agency — with the intention of establishing an almost total monopoly over large nationwide media. Their status is regulated by statute. Lacking a parliamentary majority to amend those statutes (given the President’s expected veto would require a 3/5 majority to override), Tusk decided to carry out a forcible operation to take over the headquarters of public broadcasters — in violation of statutory provisions and rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal

Ultimately, social resistance was broken, critical journalists were dismissed, and public media became an exceptionally vulgar and blatant propaganda mouthpiece of Tusk’s liberal administration, actively participating in the persecution of the opposition and serving as a weapon of the government in political lawfare. The government has now allocated from the budget nearly 1.2 billion USD for their operations.

However, standing in the way of fully implementing the plan to silence dissenting voices was the National Broadcasting Council (Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji). The Council, established under Article 213 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, is an independent state organ tasked with guarding freedom of speech, the right to information, and the public interest in radio and television. Its members are appointed by the President, the Sejm, and the Senate, and their terms last six years — intended to guarantee independence from the sitting parliamentary majority. Acting on behalf of the Council is its Chair, elected from among its members also for a six‑year term. In September 2022, Maciej Świrski was elected Chair. The Chair performs a role analogous to independent media regulators such as the Federal Communications Commission in the USA.