The statement from Marshal Szymon Hołownia claimed that the Sejm’s position is merely an opinion, not a binding act, and carries no legal weight. In response, there was a direct question to Hołownia from the speaker’s podium: how, based on this opinion, can the Minister of Culture and National Heritage be urged to restore legal order in the media, if that is even possible? The remark was echoed during a TVP Info interview by Prof. Przemysław Czarnek.
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The proposed resolution, aimed at restoring the rule of law and ensuring impartiality and reliability in public media and the PAP, was submitted by a coalition of MPs from KO, Polska 2050-TD, Lewica, and PSL-TD. The draft requests the Ministry of Finance, represented by the ownership bodies of the public broadcasting companies and PAP, to take corrective actions. It also commits to immediate legislative work to restore constitutional state of affairs.
During the afternoon session, MPs chose to advance the resolution to the second reading immediately, without sending it to committee, as KO and Polska 2050-TD had urged. Earlier, the Sejm did not back PiS’s motion to dismiss the draft resolution in the first reading.
“This resolution has no legal consequences,”
Czarnek, speaking with a TVP Info journalist, recalled the 2014 episode when the Internal Security Agency entered the editorial offices of the weekly magazine Wprost.
Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, who had served as Minister of the Interior and Administration and as Coordinator of the Secret Services, was noted for sending a message to the Wprost editorial staff to calm them and in some accounts to seize ABW editorial property in June 2014. A few weeks later, he was dismissed.
“This is what Czarnek remembered,”
I asked about the rationale behind acting on this opinion. If it is merely an opinion, there should be no justification for intervention in public media. The National Media Council Act could be amended instead. The resolution, in this view, has no legal force
— he noted.
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Hołownia’s response to the president
During the Sejm session, Hołownia reiterated that the considered resolution represents an opinion. After the initial reading of the bill, PiS MP Krzysztof Szczucki stated that the Speaker of the Sejm had received a letter from President Andrzej Duda, expressing concerns about a resolution that could invite chaos and undermine media oversight under the government led by Donald Tusk. A further letter from the PAP board also urged an end to harming the good name of the Polish Press Agency.
Consequently, Szczucki requested a recess and the convening of the Sejm Presidium.
The aim was to provide time to review these letters, respond appropriately, and withdraw the controversial draft resolution.
Hołownia explained that the President’s letter had been read and expressed strong alignment with the President’s views, noting lines such as the obligation of government authorities to operate within the law and the Constitution.
“One hundred percent agreement with the president,”
he stated, promising that changes to public broadcasting would uphold democratic standards and constitutional rules.
The Sejm was urged to continue with a resolution that, while representing the Sejm’s opinion, should be approached with caution given its non-binding nature.
“Today we proceed with a resolution that reflects the Sejm’s opinion.”
Szczucki asked Hołownia to point to a constitutional provision that would make the Sejm’s resolution a source of law. The concern was that the proposed measure could alter Telewizja Polska through a broad political process.
Hołownia challenged this view, arguing that the Sejm’s rules of procedure authorize adopting resolutions, not just bills and laws. He emphasized that today’s move is an opinion, a summons, an appeal, but not a binding enactment of new law.
The recess request did not pass, and the Sejm approved the move to the second reading of the draft resolution without the prior committee consideration.
kk/X/PAP
Source: wPolityce