(Bloomberg) -- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s cabinet placed public television and radio under liquidation after the president vetoed legislation providing subsidies to the state-run media amid a political standoff over the broadcasters.
Culture Minister Bartomiej Sienkiewicz said on Wednesday that Telewizja Polska SA, Polskie Radio SA, and news agency Polska Agencja Prasowa SA have been disbanded after a “suspension in financing” due to President Andrzej Duda’s veto. The liquidation status will help to efficiently restructure public media and avoid layoffs amid a lack of public funding, the ministry said.
Earlier, Tusk said he was willing to work with Duda and members of the opposition Law & Justice party in the future to create a “more balanced public media” landscape and a stable funding system replacing the current finance ministry subsidies. His cabinet’s decision last week to reshuffle the management ranks of public broadcasters fueled sit-in protests by Law and justice officials, who lost their governing majority in an October election.
Additional story: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/polish-government-dissolves-public-broadcasters-173411520.html
(Bloomberg photo)