A heated session of the parliamentary culture committee captured attention as members debated the role of public media. The committee chair, Bogdan Zdrojewski KO, resisted broad discussion about attacks on public media, insisting the focus should be on preserving it. A comment from Marek Suski (PiS) drew a sharp reply: “Nice method… Jaruzelski has also restored democracy.”
“Dictatorial tendencies”
During the culture and media committee meeting, vice-chair Joanna Lichocka (PiS) proposed expanding the agenda to seek information from the Minister of Culture on alleged illegal actions linked to suppressing public media, the installation of usurpers there, and losses reported by the National Broadcasting Council due to what she described as a criminal attack.
This inquiry was framed as urgent.
The committee chair urged proceeding quickly with a vote, aiming to move beyond formalities.
“Do you not intend to discuss the motion?” a PiS MP asked.
“I have no plans for the application itself,” came the reply.
One colleague noted the need to avoid stalling any discussion.
“I understand the dictatorial tendencies and I congratulate the Chairman for not even having a discussion in committee,” another PiS member observed.
“Today you destroy the archives”
When Lichocka’s formal information request to the Minister of Culture and the National Broadcasting Council failed to pass, Suski submitted a motion to broaden the agenda with information about the destruction of archives reportedly underway.
“This matters to the country and such information should be available,” Suski argued. “This is not only a historical issue but also a financial one.”
“Fascists used to burn books; today you destroy archives. This compares to actions seen when power shifted in the past,” Suski added.
Meanwhile, Zdrojewski denied that public media archives were being destroyed.
“I deny it,” he stated flatly.
Lichocka expanded on the impact he suggested, noting that discussions should include the work of Polish creators and documentarians who contributed to public television. She pressed the need to address the destruction of works like the program Reset and to reveal ties with Russia.
“What harms Polish culture?” she asked.
Suski and others argued the issue should be discussed in the Sejm, while Zdrojewski indicated the topic was not yet ready for a full vote.
The debate touched on the state of archival materials, with comments about losses to TV archives after 1989 and the broader implications for the public’s cultural heritage.
Suski suggested the topic might be appropriate for the sports committee as well, a quip that drew mixed reactions.
Zdrojewski asserted his knowledge about the state of state archives, saying losses to television archives were significant, but stressing that discussing the destruction would take time.
“I consider this topic closed for now,” he concluded.
The discussion also raised questions about whether former Minister of Culture Piotr Gliński and the former head of the public broadcaster would be invited to testify, with Suski noting the absence of some voices during the session.
“You’re not the martial law commissioner, are you? During martial law, the opposition’s mouth was gagged,” Suski remarked.
Gliński: Sienkiewicz did not know whether he had consciously broken the law?
Prof. Gliński finally spoke, mentioning that the former minister requested a break and a summons for Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz. He highlighted the self-financing nature of PAP and questioned the motives behind certain actions.
“The reasons for this sham liquidation are also off base. Did he know it was funded from another source and not tied to the budget law, or did he act knowingly against the law? This is outrageous. It looks like an attack on Polish democracy,” Gliński stated.
TVP World shutdown
KO MP Urszula Augustyn accused PiS MPs of taking over the committee agenda and pushing formal motions forward.
“You are blocking today’s committee meeting because you have this idea,” she alleged.
PiS MP Marcin Przydacz, a former official in international policy, drew attention to the shutdown of TVP World.
“For those concerned with international affairs, this channel was a crucial link to the English-speaking world, delivering news about Poland and Central Europe. It remains entirely disabled,” Przydacz warned.
“Jaruzelski also restored democracy”
After a series of speeches from PiS MPs, the chair decided to move on, but not without voicing a controversial view.
“I didn’t want to start a polemic,” Zdrojewski claimed, noting that the public media situation was important and worthy of discussion, whether in the Sejm or the culture committee.
“This topic is important, but I do not share the assessment that public media is being destroyed,” he added.
“On the contrary, we are dealing with saving the public media and restoring it to society,” he concluded.
“Nice method… Jaruzelski also restored democracy,” Suski retorted.
Losing Public Television!
The discussion turned to financial and strategic concerns about the public broadcaster. The National Broadcasting Council’s chair, a PiS-aligned member, raised questions about the impact of government actions on media groups and the flows of advertising revenue.
Maciej Świrski, head of the council, noted that an investigation was underway into the plans to liquidate public media, and he outlined the complexities of advertising markets, channel counts, and revenue disparities between public and private outlets.
“Around 20 percent of the advertising market must be distributed, and the size of the pie matters when public television and private channels compete for attention,” he stated.
“This is what pluralism looks like in Poland”
Gliński and Lichocka continued to describe the challenges facing the media landscape, arguing that illegal appointments and actions against media companies undermine democracy. They emphasized that the losses borne by public media benefited commercial outlets and argued for greater transparency in how funding and operations were managed.
Independent journalists who spoke with various outlets in the hall described similar concerns about pluralism and editorial independence, pointing to the broader implications for Poland’s democratic culture.
The session concluded with calls to preserve the public media system and to protect the diverse viewpoints that constitute a healthy media environment. The ongoing debate highlighted legal, constitutional, and financial questions about the future of public broadcasting in the country.