“The end of the dispute over the legality of eliminating the abomination that was PiS television. I would like to thank everyone who helped with this, and to those who defended this pathology, I have only one thing to say: the roller does not argue with the asphalt which way it should go. End of speculation. The court decided regarding the liquidation of TVP,” Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, Minister of Culture and National Heritage, wrote on the X website.
At the end of December 2023, the Minister decided to put public media companies into liquidation. He justified this decision by the president's veto of the budget-related act, which guaranteed subsidies from the state budget of up to PLN 3 billion for TVP and Polish Radio.
Less than a month later, however, the court clerk refused to disclose the opening of TVP's liquidation in the National Court Register (KRS). Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz on website X then emphasized that this decision would become final only after it was considered by the courts of all instances. He also filed a complaint against the referendary's decision.
On Monday, the Registry Court in Warsaw issued a ruling regarding the disclosure of the opening of TVP's liquidation in the National Court Register. The change was also recorded in the register – in the “company under which the company operates” column there is the entry: “+TELEWIZJA POLSKA+ SPÓŁKA AKCYJNA W LIKWIDACJA”.
Earlier, the registry courts had already entered the opening of liquidation for all 17 regional public radio stations and PAP. The matter of putting Polskie Radio into liquidation still remains to be resolved by the court.
On December 19, the Sejm adopted a resolution “on the restoration of legal order and the impartiality and reliability of the public media and the Polish Press Agency”, calling on the State Treasury to take corrective actions. A day later, the Ministry of Culture announced that the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, as the body exercising the ownership rights of the State Treasury, acting on the basis of the provisions of the Commercial Companies Code, dismissed on December 19 the current presidents of the management boards of Telewizja Polska SA, Polish Radio SA and the Polish Press Agency SA and their supervisory boards. He appointed new supervisory boards of these companies, which appointed new management boards.
On December 23, President Duda announced that he had vetoed the budget-related law prepared by the new government, which provided, among other things, funds for public media for the next year. As the president justified, his decision was related to a “gross violation of the constitution and the principles of a democratic state of law” in the public media.
After the presidential veto, the head of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage decided on December 27 to put TVP, Polskie Radio and PAP into liquidation. The state of liquidation may be withdrawn at any time by the owner – stated in the announcement of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The Minister of Culture made a similar decision on December 29 in relation to 17 regional companies of Polish Radio.
On January 18, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the provisions of the Commercial Companies Code (CCC) on the dissolution and liquidation of a joint-stock company, understood in such a way that their regulatory scope by virtue of the Act itself also covers public radio and TV units, are unconstitutional. Moreover, in the announced judgment, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the provision of the Broadcasting and Television Act excluding certain provisions of the Commercial Companies Code from applying to public radio and television units is unconstitutional. The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage announced that the Constitutional Tribunal's judgment regarding public radio and television broadcasting entities has no legal significance, which results in, among others, Monday's decision of the Registry Court to allow TVP to go into liquidation. (PAP)
