A Warsaw court has revoked the terrestrial broadcasting licences of two independent broadcasters, TV Republlika and wPolsce 24.
The pair have been the two fastest growing news channels in Poland, with the court decision on April 10 coming in the middle of a presidential election campaign.
Michał Karnowski, one of the founders of wPolsce24, told Brussels Signal on April 11 the move was designed to silence criticism of the centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. He claimed it was another element of the lawfare that the administration had launched against opponents.
“They use brutal power, not law,” he claimed of the goverment.
Asked about why the court revoked the licences, Karnowski pointed out they had been challenged “by a small company which had pitched for the frequencies awarded by the State broadcasting authority, [and] which did not have the necessary experience or funding to be able to deliver such a service”.
He said by contrast both TV Republika and wPolsce24 were well established operations that were already broadcasting on cable and online.
He highlighted that the court’s decision was based on the premise that the two channels already broadcasting “had not been checked with regard to State security”. That was despite the fact that in their years of operation, there had been no challenges or complaints on those grounds.
“These were just excuses used by a politically motivated judge,” according to Karnowski, who also claimed that “some politicians and journalists close to the Tusk government knew about this verdict in advance”. He further claimed the courtroom was full of Liberal media journalists on the day of the verdict and that they were fraternising openly with the judge and cheering the verdict.
Asked about whether the two channels would disappear from terrestrial television in the near future, Karnowski replied that could happen even though there was going to be an appeal against court the ruling.
“Everything is possible now.
“Two years ago I would have said that you can’t close us down before any appeal but now we have government lawyers arguing that broadcasting is such a sensitive matter for State security that any company that does not have a licence must be stopped from broadcasting immediately,” he said.
The biggest problem, though, Karnowski added, was “that the decision to revoke licences undermines our business plans, makes it hard to develop and this is our opponents goal, to shut down right wing stations, which they claim are not objective but which in reality are ensuring that freedom of speech is a practical reality in Poland”.
He emphasised what he saw as the importance of having a terrestrial licence because terrestrial TV was most used in rural areas and by older and lower income groups who did not necessarily have access to the digital sphere or cable networks.
“What is being attempted is to cut Conservative voters off from sources of information and debate which are proving attractive to them.
“They want a world in which there are only left-wing broadcasters left,” added Karnowski.
Asked about the way the Tusk government was treating conservative media, Karnowski revealed both broadcasters were barred from government press conferences “and we only managed sometimes to sneak in by accident and then they make clear we’re not welcome”.
“They have even sometimes called in police and have often told us that we’re not wanted because we are not real journalists.”
Reacting to reports that Conservative media had been cut off from State advertising Karnowski confirmed that was the case.
He added, though, that a more sinister development was that private TV companies were being intimidated into cancelling advertising “with hints given to private corporations that working with conservative media is a danger to their business”.
Karnowski said he was less worried about what was happening in the media market compared to what was happening in Poland in general and accused the Tusk government of being “authoritarian”.
“They took over public media with the help of the police and did the same in taking over the office of the public prosecutor.”
He alleged that the government had violated the Constitution by refusing to accept the validity of existing courts and that meant “there is no rule of law at all in Poland now”.
Asked about whether there had been any reaction to the latest developments in the Polish media from European institutions, Karnowski replied that, “as expected”, there had been none.
“I remember that at the time of the Conservative (PiS) government, we had delegations from EU bodies scrutinising with great care every development in Polish media – today, nothing”.
Karnowski said he felt that European Union officials “know what is happening in Poland; the EU, the western powers, the NGOs , the media organisations but they have decided to be silent”.
Referring to Romania, where last year’s election was annulled and the lead candidate later debarred from standing in the rerun, Karnowski claimed that “should the Conservative candidate win the Polish presidential election, people close to the government are hinting that election will be nullified, too”.
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