WARSAW — Opponents of Poland’s new conservative government staged mass rallies in support of press freedom across the country on Saturday afternoon.
The demonstrators — the third such protest since the Law and Justice party took power two months ago — were upset by a new law that gives the government led by the Law and Justice party more power over public media.
“Polish Television and Polish Radio will become government, not public stations,” said a letter from the organizers of the protest, the recently formed Committee for the Defense of Democracy.
Most of the demonstrations took place outside local state radio and television buildings, with protestors waving Polish and EU flags and vowing to resist the government’s new media measures.
“We the citizens own the public media, not the government and the politicians,” read one sign at a rally in Kraków.
As many as 20,000 people gathered in front of a public television building in central Warsaw.
The government’s media bill raced through parliament and was signed into law by President Andrzej Duda on Thursday. It allowed for the immediate removal of senior management at public radio and television. Their replacements, who include Law and Justice loyalists, were chosen by the treasury minister.
The government argues that public media were too favorable to the previous governing coalition led by the Civic Platform party, and that the law restores balance. Previous governments have also tried to influence public media, but none have moved as swiftly to assert control.
“Objectivity and accuracy are journalistic virtues,” Dawid Jackiewicz, the treasury minister, said on Friday when naming the new media chiefs. “If there are journalists here who did not keep those standards, then they may feel uneasy.”
Some senior Law and Justice politicians have said that the main role for the public media is to broadcast positive news about the authorities.
“Voters will finally find out what is being done for them by the government, parliament and president they elected,” wrote Krystyna Pawłowicz, a Law and Justice MP.
International media watchdog groups have warned that the media law contradicts fundamental EU values. The European Commission plans to discuss the situation in Poland next week, citing concern over both the media law and new legislation on the Constitutional Tribunal, the country’s highest constitutional court, that critics say limits the independence of the judiciary and weakens the system of checks and balances.