Poland’s state-owned press agency, PAP, has announced the closure of English-language service The First News (TFN). It says TFN was expensive and “did not have any measurable impact on Poland’s good image” abroad.
The announcement follows shortly after state broadcaster TVP suspended its own English-language service, TVP World, which, like TFN, was created under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.
Both decisions followed the new government’s controversial and contested move last month to replace the management of public media firms and then put them into liquidation. It argued that the measures were necessary to “depoliticise” outlets that had been turned into propaganda mouthpieces by PiS.
Polish state TV's English-language news channel has been suspended and its director fired as part of the new government's takeover of public media
The former ruling PiS party, which oversaw the creation of TVP World, has criticised the decision https://t.co/w5RfbLmncA
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 28, 2023
Speaking to news website Wirtualne Media, PAP’s acting editor-in-chief Marek Błoński said that, as part of the liquidation process, they had been obliged to review spending in all areas.
“The cost analysis regarding The First News confirmed the unprofitability of this project, and the substantive analysis led to the conclusion that running such a portal is not directly part of the tasks falling within the public mission of PAP,” explained Błoński.
TFN also “did not meet its primary goals”, claimed Błoński. “It did not have any measurable impact on Poland’s good image among recipients and generated high, seven-figure [annual] costs.”
TFN’s content is no longer being updated and its website will be taken down on 15 February. PAP will continue offering some other commercial English-language content.
Dagmara Leszkowicz, PAP’s deputy editor-in-chief who managed TFN, told Wirtualne Media today that the decision to close TFN down had come as “an unpleasant surprise”.
“TFN was not created as a commercial project,” she noted, but as one intended to improve Poland’s image abroad. “As such, it fits perfectly into the mission of the Polish Press Agency.” Leszkowicz also claimed that TFN was “an absolutely non-political project”.
When TFN was launched in 2018, the then head of PAP, Wojciech Surmacz, said that the aim was “to show the world from a Polish perspective” and to “show Poland as it is, without any distortions”
“Poland is often shown in foreign media not entirely as it really looks, and we will gently correct this image, because we will show the truth,” he added. Surmacz noted that the name “The First News” came from the title of an essay by Polish author Joseph Conrad.
State broadcaster TVP remains Poland's least trusted major news source, finds an annual study by @risj_oxford, which notes that the station provides "skewed, pro-government coverage".
The most trusted outlets are RMF FM, Polsat, Radio Zet and TVN https://t.co/nhxEaj9lS0
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 15, 2023
While public media in Poland have always been under the influence of whichever government is in office, during its time in power from 2015 to 2023, PiS exerted an unprecedented amount of influence over state media outlets, which often became mouthpieces for the ruling party.
Tusk’s government came to power last month pledging to depoliticise those outlets. One of its first actions, less than a week after taking office, was to unilaterally remove the management of TVP, PAP and Polskie Radio. Soon after, it put the firms into liquidation.
However, some court decisions have subsequently rejected both the initial takeover and subsequent liquidation. Many legal experts have also questioned their legality. However, the government insists it acted lawfully and says the court decisions are being appealed.
A court has refused to register the government's move to put public radio into liquidation.
The decision was welcomed by the opposition, which says it shows the government acted unlawfully.
But the culture minister notes it can still be appealed https://t.co/Y0XxvcUhQm
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 22, 2024
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Main image credit: Lukas Plewnia/Flickr (under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
