Another mistake by Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz. The situation with TVP repeats itself
Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz’s bad streak continues. The court rejected the entry of the new authorities of Polish Radio into the National Court Register. However, this does not change the liquidator’s authority.
District Court for the Capital City of Warsaw Warsaw rejected the application to enter the new authorities of Polish Radio appointed in December by Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz into the National Court Register – Onet reported. Earlier, a similar decision was made regarding the TVP authorities. However, this does not change much in the current situation.
The negative decision to enter the new authorities of Polish Radio into the National Court Register was argued primarily by the resolution of the Constitutional Tribunal of 1995, according to which “the principle of independence of public radio and television broadcasting takes on a clear form when its position in relation to the government and its subordinate structures is considered” .
The court refers to the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal
‘The essence of the 1992 reform was the transformation of the government radio and television broadcasting into public radio and television. The purpose of the specific regulation was to separate radio and television from the government and the parliamentary majority associated with it, so as to prevent these media from being treated as mass media as a political instrument of governance,” Onet quotes.
We read further that “this order to maintain internal pluralism in public radio and television programs can only be implemented if they maintain a clear dissonance from the current political administrator.”
In addition, the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal from 2016 was cited, which found that the exclusion of the National Broadcasting Council from the procedure of appointing the authorities of TVP and Polskie Radio was unconstitutional. However, it was emphasized that, as in the case of a minister, there is no presumption of constitutionality in the case of appointment by the National Media Council.
The liquidator remains in office
The rejection of the entry in the National Court Register does not mean major changes in the organization of Polish Radio. It applies only to the authorities elected by Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz on December 20 last year, and not to the liquidator, who was appointed a week later on the occasion of the presidential veto of the budget bill.
Piotr Zemła, chairman of the supervisory board of TVP SA in liquidation, commented on a similar situation in Telewizja Polska. – The resolution does not in any way refer to the issue of liquidation of TVP SA. It should be remembered that the issues of entry in the National Court Register are of a declaratory nature and therefore do not have the value of shaping reality – the resolution of the shareholders’ meeting remains effective and has legal force until it is changed or the competent court decides will declare it invalid – he explained.
