Poland liquidates all public media for restructuring

Poland's new culture minister liquidates public media to restructure, avoiding layoffs, amid government-President standoff.

Poland's new culture minister on Wednesday announced the liquidation of all public media, which have been seen as a mouthpiece of the previous populist-nationalist government, ahead of a restructuring.

Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz said the move would "guarantee the working and restructuring" of the public television and radio stations and national press agency PAP while avoiding staff layoffs, according to a statement published on X, formerly Twitter.

"The liquidation status can be withdrawn at any time by the owner", the state, he wrote.

The latest action is likely to aggravate the standoff between the government and President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the previous administration who has criticised the government's reforms and vetoed subsidies to state media.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-EU government took power earlier this month after eight years of rule by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party.

PiS spokesman, Rafal Bochenek, on Wednesday called the liquidation move "a denial of all the rules of democracy — of the rules by which the state functions".

Marcin Mastalerek, an adviser to Duda, said it demonstrated "the total powerlessness of the authorities, who have found no legal way of changing the authorities of these companies".