The takeover of public media signaled by Donald Tusk and the parliamentary majority he leads is important for them to control the flow of information about their policies. They do not want the fact that lobbyists are now running amok, as in the case of the so-called “windmill scandal,” to be exposed to the public.
Once they control all of the media, it will be harder for politicians from the outgoing ruling Law and Justice (PiS) to shed light on such practices.
Tusk’s party, Civic Platform (PO), has past experience with this strategy. They took full control of public television back in 2010 after the Smolensk air tragedy, and it became a government mouthpiece with a large-scale clearout of more independent-minded journalists.
The commercial TVN was already supporting them, and they managed to neutralize papers critical of them, such as the daily Rzeczpospolita and the tabloid Fakt, when Tusk’s right-hand man exerted pressure on the owners of both papers to change their editors.
That takeover paid off in situations in which awkward questions were being asked about the Smolensk disaster and in which crowds were shown mourning President Lech Kaczyński. This all stopped once the PO managed to install its candidate, Bronisław Komorowski, as president. He pushed through changes within the body responsible for appointing public media management that turned out to be favorable to PO.
It is worth recalling how this happened, especially since now the face of the announced changes in public television is to be Jan Dworak — the same person whose decisions led to purges on a scale unprecedented at TVP.
We can expect the same process to be followed this time, even if it means breaking the law. Independent media will be starved of public advertising and public media will have their funding cut. It will be the end of meaningful pluralism in the Polish media, with all the mainstream media singing from the same Tusk hymn sheet in his praise.
Moreover, journalists who have been critical of the new parliamentary majority will face the wrath of the new rulers, who will not hesitate to take legal action against them. They have already promised as much.
This will all happen very fast and only time will tell how effective the resistance to it may be. Much will depend, as ever, on the public’s reaction.
