{"id":42909,"date":"2023-12-21T11:30:28","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T11:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/?p=42909"},"modified":"2023-12-21T11:30:28","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T11:30:28","slug":"eu-crony-donald-tusk-criticised-after-shutting-down-polish-broadcaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/2023\/12\/21\/eu-crony-donald-tusk-criticised-after-shutting-down-polish-broadcaster\/","title":{"rendered":"EU crony Donald Tusk criticised after shutting down Polish broadcaster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/Donald-Tusk-Ursula-von-der-Leyen-5125662.jpg?r=1703154330046\"><\/p>\n<p>Donald Tusk, the former European Council president who is now Poland\u2019s Prime Minister, has been accused of \u201cthe destruction of democracy\u201d after seizing control of country\u2019s state media and taking it off air.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Tusk, who last week returned to the post he occupied from 2007 to 2014, has portrayed his move as a way of re-establishing independent media in Poland in a legally binding and lasting way.<\/p>\n<p>However, Beata Szydlo, an MEP and herself a former Polish PM between 2015 and 2017, offered a scathing analysis, accusing him of \u201can illegal takeover\u201d of Telewizja Polska (TVP).<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Polish MPs in the country\u2019s legislature, the Sejm, adopted a resolution presented by Mr Tusk&#8217;s government calling for the restoration of &#8220;legal order, objectivity and fairness\u201d of TVP, Polish Radio and the PAP news agency.<\/p>\n<p>After the resolution, Poland&#8217;s new culture minister, Bart\u0142omiej Sienkiewicz, replaced the heads and the supervisory boards of state media, which chose new management.<\/p>\n<p> <strong> READ MORE: <\/strong> <strong>EU \u2018likely\u2019 to miss most of its key 2030 green targets, report warns<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/Jaroslaw-Kaczynski-5125653.jpg?r=1703154330126\"><\/p>\n<p>The new head of TVP&#8217;s supervisory board, lawyer Piotr Zemla, came to the broadcaster&#8217;s headquarters on Wednesday, along with the new management and journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Szydlo, a member of the recently ousted Law and Justice Party (PiS), told Express.co.uk: \u201cDonald Tusk&#8217;s government is trying to change the authorities in charge of public media in Poland based on a Sejm resolution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSejm resolutions do not provide a legal basis for authorities other than the Sejm. Nevertheless, based on this, Tusk&#8217;s people broke into the headquarters of Polish Television and claimed that they are now in charge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn addition, the authorities immediately stopped the broadcasting of Polish Television, an unprecedented event in Polish history. It is as if the BBC was taken off the air at the request of the Prime Minister.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <strong> Don&#8217;t miss&#8230; <\/strong> <br \/> <strong>China economic meltdown warning as billionaires pull cash out of regime[ANALYSIS] <\/strong> <br \/> <strong>Desperate SNP scambles to plug \u00a31.5bn black hole[INSIGHT] <\/strong> <br \/> <strong>UK foreign secretary calls for release of Hong Kong&#8217;s media tycoon Jimmy Lai[VIDEO] <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"> <g clip-path=\"url(#clip0_1078_5986)\"> <\/path> <\/path> <\/g> <defs> <clippath> <rect width=\"23.4329\" height=\"23.4329\" fill=\"white\" transform=\"translate(0 0.134262)\"><\/rect> <\/clippath> <\/defs> <\/svg> Support fearless journalism<\/li>\n<li> <svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"> <g clip-path=\"url(#clip0_1078_5986)\"> <\/path> <\/path> <\/g> <defs> <clippath> <rect width=\"23.4329\" height=\"23.4329\" fill=\"white\" transform=\"translate(0 0.134262)\"><\/rect> <\/clippath> <\/defs> <\/svg> Read The Daily Express online, advert free<\/li>\n<li> <svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"> <g clip-path=\"url(#clip0_1078_5986)\"> <\/path> <\/path> <\/g> <defs> <clippath> <rect width=\"23.4329\" height=\"23.4329\" fill=\"white\" transform=\"translate(0 0.134262)\"><\/rect> <\/clippath> <\/defs> <\/svg> Get super-fast page loading<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/logo\/logo-premium-subscription.png\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/Beata-Szydlo-5125658.jpg?r=1703154330167\"><\/p>\n<p>She continued: \u201cIn addition to the attempted illegal takeover of public media, the very mode of using the resolution as a basis for government action raises the risk that Tusk will try to act the same way in other matters. This is the destruction of democracy in Poland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Law and Justice leader Jaros\u0142aw Kaczynski and other top party figures occupied buildings housing the offices and studios of state-run television TVP in the hope that their supporters would come out to demonstrate in big numbers. A rally was called for later Wednesday and a few hundred people gathered, flying Poland&#8217;s national white-and-red flags, but then dispersed.<\/p>\n<p>Law and Justice MEP Marek Pek said: \u201cThe party instructions are that all Law and Justice parliament members come here to the TVP building. We must show through our presence that we are deeply against these lawless and brutal actions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Law and Justice subsequently issued a statement saying the actions of the new government were \u201cillegal\u201d and that the changes in leadership of the media outlets were done \u201cunlawfully\u201d.<\/p>\n<h3>Polish news anchor pulled off air as Tusk reforms take effect<\/h3>\n<p>Posting on X, formerly Twitter, and referring to Law and Justice ally, Poland\u2019s President Andrzej Duda, Mr Tusk said: \u201cMr President, as I have already informed you, today&#8217;s actions are aimed &#8211; in accordance with your intention &#8211; at restoring legal order and common decency in public life. You can count on our determination and iron consistency in this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Duda\u2019s critics have accused him of violating the Polish Constitution and other laws as he tried to support the policies of the Law and Justice party. Some of the party&#8217;s policies, especially in the judicial sector, drew strong criticism and financial sanctions from the EU, which regarded them as undemocratic.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Tusk has close ties with Brussels, visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen even before he returned as Prime Minister. He has made little secret of his wish to put Poland at the heart of the EU.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/politics\/1847821\/donald-tusk-poland-eu-tvp-state-broadcaster\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Tusk, the former European Council president who is now Poland\u2019s Prime Minister, has been&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":42908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieroselvaggio.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}