During Wednesday’s parliamentary debate, opposition representatives expressed their support for the citizens’ law on the liquidation of TVP Info and the abolition of subscription fees. The motion to reject the bill at first reading was tabled by the PiS Parliamentary Club.
At the first reading of the bill on Wednesday, five-minute statements on behalf of the parliamentary clubs and three-minute statements on behalf of the circles were provided. Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw, was appointed to represent the Legislative Initiative Committee. In his speech, he described Telewizja Polska as a medium that serves “to deepen and incite social divisions”, to “undermine the foundations of the community”.
Opposition attack
The mission of public media should be to monitor power and control power in the name of society
– emphasized the representative of the Legislative Initiative Committee. As one of the manipulations carried out by TVP, he described informing about the provisions of the C40 Cities report calling for a reduction in meat consumption. He again denied that he supported the C40 program.
You have made a caricature of a public broadcaster
said the mayor of Warsaw.
In his opinion, as one of the examples of the scandalous behavior of TVP Info journalists, Trzaskowski acknowledged the issue of discussing information about children sexually abused by Krzysztof F. in this station’s broadcast, disclosed on December 30, 2022. PO MP Piotr Borys revealed the details of a jailed pedophile and said one of the abused children is the son of MP Magdalena Filiks. As an example of “stigmatization and exclusion”, Trzaskowski also cited the revelation on TVP Info that “Zbigniew Galperyn, an insurgent in Warsaw who opposed the campaign against sexual minorities, was an employee of the security service in the period of the People’s Republic of Poland. . According to Trzaskowski, the activity of TVP Info is “damage to the whole society”, in summary, he appealed to the Sejm to support the law providing for the liquidation of this TV station, which “should not exist in its present form “.
A similar tone was expressed by Member of Parliament Rafał Grupiński (KO), who supported the bill. In his opinion, TVP’s message is dominated by “a gloomy staff intent on getting someone”. Representatives from all other opposition parties also expressed their support for further work on the bill. In their speeches, they focused on the issues of media funding and the appointment of media authorities.
It cannot be the case that the media authorities are appointed by politicians, because they are responsible for the current quality of the government media
– said Member of Parliament Michał Gramatyka representing Poland 2050. He added that “there will be no politicians on the National Broadcasting Council” and that the public media authorities should be selected in an open competition.
The provisions of the draft law were also mentioned by the Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Szymon Giżyński, entrusted with analyzing how the public service task is carried out in the mass media, who said that the liquidation of the subscription system would lead to a collapse of the public media funding system, which could lead to a complete reduction in their funding.
In the absence of subscription fees, it will also not be possible to award compensation, which has significantly improved the financial situation of public broadcasters since 2016
– added.
Giżyński pointed out that “the draft law offers no alternative but to indicate that it will still be possible to finance public service broadcasters with subsidies from the state budget, but no such subsidies have been granted so far.”
The draft does not specify the amount or the conditions under which the grants would be awarded. In the case of TVP, according to a citizen project, it would be very limited possible to carry out activities by earning money from advertisements
he said. According to him, “the performance of a public mission cannot be imposed without public funds”. He noted that “European documents indicate that Member States must create public media and transfer the resources necessary to carry out the public task.”
He added that the lack of funding would result in the termination of sports broadcasting and film productions. And in the case of radio, especially regional, the passage of the law in the proposed form would make it impossible to carry out any activity, because most of the budgets of regional centers are based on public funds.
Suski’s response
United Right representative Marek Suski described the project presented by Trzaskowski as “populist”. He decided it was part of the PO community’s internal disputes and a repeat of Donald Tusk’s calls for non-payment of the subscription fee.
After the elections, he said he had ambitions to abolish the contribution, and sent bailiffs to those who no longer paid the contribution. This is a repetition of political propaganda
said Suski. He added that after a possible opposition victory “this well-coordinated idea will be repeated”. According to him, TVP is the guarantor of media pluralism in Poland, and the proposals for its liquidation are “an attack on freedom of expression and the right to information”. He also rejected accusations against the station of “hate speech leading to death”.
The only political assassination was the assassination of Marek Rosiak in Łódź by a Civic Platform member. You were so full of hate that this man came to kill our friend
said Suski.
The liquidation of TVP Info is one of the announcements of the presidential campaign of the capital’s mayor in 2020. Trzaskowski claimed at the time that this 24-hour public television channel was completely “subordinate to PiS”. The bill was submitted to the Sejm in December 2022. 103,583 citizens signed the project.
At the time, the idea of liquidating the public news channel was rejected by the left.
We are against the liquidation of TVP Info; public television has a mission and is, among other things, reliable information
– said on December 28, the head of the left club, Krzysztof Gawkowski, who was a guest on Radio Zet.
The project also received criticism from the Press Freedom Observatory of the Association of Polish Journalists.
In my opinion, the idea of liquidating TVP Info is absurd and absolutely unjustified
– said in an interview with PAP in February 2021, the vice president of the SDP, director of the Press Freedom Monitoring Center of the SDP, Jolanta Hajdasz. She pointed out that this is an action aimed at liquidating the media, which is difficult for opposition politicians.
The bill discussed on Wednesday is mainly based on changes to the law on the license fee and the law on radio and television broadcasting. The justification recalled that, in accordance with the Radio and Television Act, Telewizja Polska is obliged, inter alia, to: create and distribute a “specialized information and current affairs programme”. The draft is therefore based on such an amendment of the provisions (Articles 21 and 26) of the Broadcasting Act that TVP would not be able to make this type of programme. The initiators of the law also aim to repeal the law on subscription fees and to stop ex officio initiated and executed executions.
The vote on the bill will take place in the voting block on Thursday.
gah/PAP
Source: wPolityce