A journalist took to social media to describe the situation that allegedly took place at the headquarters of the Television News Agency (TAI) on Powstańców Square in Warsaw.
“Today, one of the journalists came to Panorama to collect things. The security guards prohibited the entry on the order of the liquidators. A visibly pregnant lady asked to go in and out for a few minutes, even with them, but the gentleman sent from Voronitsa, who cites “orders” he refused in advance, wrote Pereira on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
Public media is in liquidation
On December 20, the Ministry of Culture announced that the head of the ministry, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, dismissed the current presidents of the governing boards of Telewizja Polska, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency, as well as the supervisory boards. The minister appointed new supervisory boards of the companies, which appointed new management boards.
After Christmas, Sienkiewicz decided to put TVP, PR and PAP in charge state of liquidation. He justified his decision by vetoing President Andrzej Duda's budget act, which included funds for financing public media.
Who is Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz?
Born in 1961 in Kielce, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz is a historian, publicist, politician and former officer of the State Protection Service (UOP). In 1990-2022, he served as an officer of this service with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
From 2013 to 2014, he held the position of Minister of Internal Affairs and coordinator of secret services. After the tape scandal, he disappeared from public life for a while.
In 2019, he was elected as a member of the Seimas for the 9th term, running on the Civil Coalition list in the Kielce district. He was re-elected in 2023. On December 13 of this year, he was appointed as the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the government of Donald Tusk.
How much did TVP executives earn?
A document disclosed by KO MP Dariusz Ionski shows:that Michal Adamczyk earned PLN 372,593.71 in total as head of the TV news agency (since April), and as part of his business activities – PLN 1,127,664 including VAT.
Samuel Pereira, deputy director of TAI, received 439,755.17 PLN since April.
Markin Tulicki, as deputy head of TAI (since May), earned PLN 417,354.33 and PLN 296,340 in total civil law contracts.
The total salary of Rafal Kwiatkowski, also the deputy director of the agency, was PLN 366,948.03 gross, while Jarosław Olechowski, as director of TAI, was PLN 1,016,450.34 gross and PLN 407,625 gross in respect of civil law contracts.
The specified amounts refer only to 2023.
RMN: The minister's actions are illegal. Bodnar: We are looking for a legal basis
The National Media Council and the current governing board of media companies consider the actions of Minister Sienkevich illegal. PiS politicians talk about “attack” on public media and call the ruling coalition “Coalition 13 December” (Donald Tusk's government was sworn in on December 13, the anniversary of the introduction of martial law).
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights issued a statement saying that “initiating changes in public media raises serious legal concerns.”
– We cannot ignore what happened in Polish public media and how many people were affected by this media. We have a situation where we are restoring constitutionality and we are looking for a legal basis to do it, said Justice Minister Adam Bodnar in a radio interview.
11 January PiS March
Next Thursday, January 11, “Law and Justice” is organizing a march in front of the Sejm to defend public media, freedom of speech and democracy, with the slogan “Protest of free Poles”.
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