The opposition wants to change public media. SDP assesses: These are illegal plans
The opposition has long been repeating that it wants to depoliticize the public media, which will involve expelling at least some of the local journalists. Jolanta Hajdasz from SDP opposed this on Telewizja Polska.
Director of the Press Freedom Monitoring Center of the Association of Polish Journalists, Jolanta Hajdasz, commented on the opposition’s plans regarding public media on Polish Television. The Civic Coalition, Third Way and the Left want to depoliticize the channels and radio stations that have served as the government’s propaganda mouthpiece and a tool for attacking opponents for the last eight years.
Hajdasz: Extralegal takeover of public media
TVP’s “Wiadomości” claims that opposition politicians even have ready lists with the names of journalists who will have to be thrown out of the public media first. – What the Civic Coalition and related groups are proposing to take over public media are extra-legal actions, Hajdasz emphasized.
– There cannot be consent to purges of public media and expulsion of journalists who do not like politicians – said the director of CMWPSDP. – We have not been striving for pluralism in public space for so many years to remain silent now – she added. She recalled that “before 2015, conservative circles had no opportunity to present their views and opinions to the public.”
The opposition wants changes in the government media
The activities of the public media consisting in promoting those in power and presenting manipulated statements of opposition politicians during the PiS rule are no longer surprising. Even in the last days before the elections, TVP “news” did not miss the opportunity to attack Donald Tusk. Polish Television has accustomed us to presenting reality in our own way.
It has been said for a long time that changes in the structures of public media will be planned after the current opposition comes to power. This argument appeared, among others, in 100 specifics for the first 100 days of the Civic Platform government. “We will depoliticize and socialize public media. We will abolish the National Media Council. We will immediately stop financing the factory of lies and hatred that has become TVP and other public media. In line with our commitment, we will allocate PLN 2 billion from TVP for cancer treatment,” we read in the program.
