A few days ago, Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, when asked on Radio Zet about the decisions of Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz regarding the public media, unexpectedly said: “we have a situation where we restore this constitutionality and we are looking for a legal solution.” basis for doing it.”
Bodnar’s motto
This statement by the current Minister of Justice and, let us remind you, recently the Commissioner for Human Rights, caused a storm on social media, as it perfectly illustrates how the current government approaches compliance with the law, both in relation to public media and the functioning of the legal system. Supreme Court Judge and Director of the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution, Kamil Zaradkiewicz, responded to this statement: “This quote will once and for all become the motto of Mr. Bodnar and his supporters.”
This is indeed evident from the consent of the Minister of Justice to disregard the applicable law by the Minister of Culture, who, in violation of both the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the laws on the National Media Council and the National Broadcasting Council, in his decision with the exception of one person, he dismissed both the supervisory boards and the boards of directors of TVP, Polish Radio and the Polish News Agency.
Since the existing boards of directors, in view of the minister’s blatant violation of the law, did not accept this decision, dual power emerged in all these companies and the newly appointed presidents tried to take over with the help of private security companies. This resulted in the intimidation of MPs who went to these institutions with parliamentary interventions, the police had to intervene many times and finally the new managers and security companies withdrew after a few days.
After the failed blitzkrieg plan – decision to liquidate
Because plan ‘A’ of the rapid takeover of the public media failed, the previous managements submitted reports to the public prosecutor’s office on suspicion of committing a crime by the minister himself and also by the new presidents of media companies illegally appointed by him. As a caveat to the National Court Register, so that the new authorities would not type, the minister decided on plan “B”. Plan “B” is the liquidation of three media companies: TVP, PR, and in this case also 16 regional companies and PAP, and the appointment of receivers, which is unprecedented in free Poland. In addition to hitting a specific critical infrastructure, in a situation where there is regular war across our eastern border, this also puts enormous pressure on the economic interests of these entities, which are extremely active in the advertising market. It is difficult to attract advertisers, especially in the long term if the entity offering such services is in liquidation and it is not really clear what the owner, i.e. the Ministry of Finance, plans to do with it.
Accepting lawlessness is only the beginning
However, the Minister of Justice not only accepts these illegal actions of the Minister of Culture towards the public media, but also protects them, as evidenced by his attempt to take over all procedures related to events in media companies from the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office . Minister Bodnar has sent an official letter to the Public Prosecution Service, requesting the transfer of all ongoing proceedings in this case. This is an ostentatious attempt to manually control the public prosecutor’s office, but also an attempt to influence the ongoing proceedings. The minister also requested transfer of the procedure for drawing up notarial deeds regarding the appointment of new powers of media companies, as well as the procedure for registration in the National Court Register.
It appears that Minister Bodnar is not only looking for legal grounds for the actions that have already been committed in flagrant violation of the law, but is also trying to take over investigations into this case by the Public Prosecution Service in order to influence its course. This has been a spectacular disaster for the Attorney General from the start, and an incredible scandal compared to when he was civil rights ombudsman not so long ago.
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Source: wPolityce