Head of Poland’s public media oversight body dismissed over connection to opposition-linked media

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

The longstanding head of the National Media Council (RMN), a state body that oversees public media, has been removed from the position by parliament due to his association with media companies linked to the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Krzysztof Czabański, a former PiS politician, was appointed as head of the RMN in 2016, when PiS was in power. The decision to remove him has been condemned by his former party as an “attack on the media” by the ruling majority, which replaced PiS in power last year.

The motion to dismiss Czabański was submitted by MPs from Civic Coalition (KO), the largest group in the current ruling coalition. They argued that Czabański violated a ban on combining his position as head of the RMN with involvement “in an entity that is a media service provider or a radio or television producer”.

As evidence, they pointed to Czabański sitting on the oversight board of the Lech Kaczyński Institute, a foundation named after the late former president and founder of PiS. Czabański’s wife, Barbara Czabańska, is president of the institute.

The foundation owns a media and advertising company, Srebrna, which is linked to Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of PiS and Lech’s identical twin brother.

Srebrna, in turn, holds stakes in media firms such as Słowo Niezależne (publisher of the right-wing news website Niezalezna) as well as Geranium, with the latter firm having held a stake in Forum SA (publisher of the right-wing daily Gazeta Polska Codziennie).

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Czabański has been a member of the Lech Kaczyński Institute’s oversight board – alongside Jarosław Kaczyński – since 2003. Meanwhile, since 2016 he has headed the RMN, which is responsible for appointing and dismissing the management of Poland’s public broadcasters and the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

“By sitting on the council of the Lech Kaczyński Institute, [Czabański] has an indirect influence on the activities of media service providers,” read the motion to dismiss him.

That violates the prohibition outlined in the law on the RMN on participating in entities that are media service providers, said Urszula Augustyn of KO, representing the MPs behind the motion, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

PiS, however, rejected the ruling coalition’s argumentation regarding Czabański’s dismissal. Joanna Lichocka, a PiS MP who is herself a member of the RMN, called it an “attack on the media”.

She argued that Czabański had not violated the relevant law as he does not hold shares in any companies that are media service providers. “Sitting on the board of a foundation, the Lech Kaczyński Institute, is completely unaffected by his participation in entities providing television activities,” she added.

In a vote on Friday, 257 MPs voted in favour of dismissing Czabański, with support for the motion coming from KO, its coalition partners the Third Way (Trzecia Droga) and The Left (Lewica), as well as Confederation (Konfederacja), an opposition party.

A minority of 183 MPs voted against the motion, all but three of them coming from the PiS caucus with further support from its ally, Kukiz’15.

During the eight years of PiS rule, public media became a mouthpiece for the ruling party. The new ruling coalition, led by Donald Tusk, has pledged to “depoliticise” the outlets.

Shortly after coming to power last year, the new government bypassed the RMN and moved to directly remove the management of public media in a move that was criticised by Czabański, the opposition and many legal experts.

Under its new management, public media, in particular broadcaster TVP, have been accused of now showing bias in favour of the new government.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Mateusz Włodarczyk/MRPiPS (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)