Warsaw [Poland], December 21: Poland's new government took a public news channel off the air on Wednesday and dismissed executives from state media to restore "impartiality", the culture ministry said, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk's reform drive faced its first big test.
Tusk's pro-European Union coalition took power last week from the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which critics say damaged judicial independence, soured European Union relations and turned state-owned media into an outlet for propaganda during its eight years in office.
Tusk's plans for change, though, are facing a fight from the outset from the former ruling party.
Dismissals at state television (TVP), radio and news agency PAP on Wednesday came after the new parliament on Tuesday adopted a resolution for restoring public media impartiality.
The resolution called on "all state authorities to immediately take action aimed at restoring constitutional order in terms of citizens' access to reliable information and the functioning of public media".
PiS sharply attacked the dismissals on Wednesday. Police were called as some PiS politicians appeared at state broadcaster TVP headquarters and other state media offices. Protesters gathered in the evening outside TVP offices in Poland's capital and smaller cities.
The state-run 24-hour news channel TVP Info, a strong critic of Tusk that has sought to portray him as dishonest and under the sway of Germany and Russia, stopped broadcasting.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation
