Poland’s top court has ruled that new president Donald Tusk’s plans to liquidate the country’s state radio, television and news agency is unconstitutional.
Broadcaster TVP Info was taken off air last month after the new government accused it of becoming an outlet for Poland’s previous government, led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.
At the time, the Polish government passed a resolution calling 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”.
However, according to Reuters, the country’s Constitutional Tribunal has now ruled that is illegal.
The ruling said any decisions on public broadcasting companies should be based on the Broadcasting Act and not on the Code of Commercial Companies, thus making the plans to liquidate the media outlets invalid.
“The right to dismiss members of the management (of state media outlets) lies solely with the National Media Council,” it added.
However, the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the EU have questioned the impartiality of the Constitutional Tribunal, which was reformed under the previous government.
