Under Donald Tusk, Poland is rapidly descending into its Communist past. Does he have plans for a new Stasi to inform on "counterrevolutionaries"?
From The European Conservative
By Zoltán Kottász
“A government that fears free media turns to censorship,” former PM Morawiecki said, as only weeks left until the presidential election.
A court in Warsaw has revoked the licences of two Polish conservative television channels, TV Republika and wPolsce24.
Opposition leader Jarosław Kaczyński called the move “the dismantling of democracy in a blatant way, without even pretending.”
The verdict is in line with the leftist-liberal government’s efforts to persecute its political opponents and to silence conservative voices.
The court on Wednesday, April 9th, overturned a decision taken last year by the KRRiT state regulator to grant terrestrial broadcasting licenses to the two television stations that are both popular among conservative viewers.
The decision to award the licence to TV Republika was appealed by MWE Networks Group, the broadcaster of Polska24, which lost the bid for the licence.
One of KRRiT’s board members, Tadeusz Kowalski, also challenged the decision, claiming there was a “lack of sufficient information about the applicants,” even though both TV Republika and wPolsce24 are long-established broadcasters.
TV Republika has been in the crosshairs of the governing coalition, and Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski recently called for the station’s licence to be revoked.
The verdict to revoke the licences was issued by Judge Barbara Kołodziejczak-Osetek, who recently supported calls for radical measures to “restore the rule of law,” in line with the rhetoric of the coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has been governing the country since December 2023.
Since coming to power, the Tusk government has arrested opposition MPs and former ministers, withheld state funding to the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, carried out the forceful takeover of the public media and the prosecutor’s office, and has totally disregarded court rulings issued by judges it perceives as being pro-PiS.
Reacting to the verdict, conservative think tank Ordo Iuris said:
Denying the only two nationwide television stations critical of the current EU-backed Polish government access to viewers—especially on the eve of the presidential election, which is to be held in May—will constitute a serious blow to the freedom of public debate.
The president of TV Republika, Tomasz Sakiewicz, said they will not be silenced and will continue to broadcast from abroad, if they are forced to.
Previous conservative prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, “A government that fears free media turns to censorship.”
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