Who’s in charge? The circular firing squad surrounds public television

Michael Hedges December 21, 2008

With new competitors popping up, ad revenues in peril and license fee revenues sagging public broadcasters agonize. Politicians either line up to take charge or run for cover. It’s a war out there.

The Telewizja Polska  (TVP) Supervisory Board voted (December 19) to suspend Board President Andrzej Urbanski along with Vice Presidents Slawomir Siwek and Marcin Bochenka leaving the public broadcaster in something of a legal limbo. Poitr Farfal was named to replace Urbanski. In-fighting over TVP’s management has been rife for years, turning the broadcaster into a political football, kicked and kicked but not quite deflated. Effectively, two separate and disconnected boards – management and supervisory – control (or not) Polish public television.

The most recent episode started with the resignation of Supervisory Board Secretary Janosz Niedziela. In the opinion of regulator KRRiT Chairman Witold Kolodziejski the TVP Supervisory Board consists of nine members, eight appointed by the KRRiT plus the Treasury Ministry, as established in a legal framework on TVP governance approved in 2006. When Niedziela resigned the Board no longer had nine members and, therefore, ceased to exist. The current rules may, subject to interpretation, only apply to the TVP Supervisory Board’s current term, expiring in 2009.

“So there is no doubt; the number of members of the supervisory board is set at nine members,” said Kolodziejski in a press conference (December 19). “The suspension (of Mr. Urbanski)… as well as any other resolution is simply null and void.”

The suspensions were ordered due to a “lack of restructuring efforts, including the company's failure to falling revenue from subscription (license fees),” said Moczydlowski. Urbanski was also singled out for being “unresponsive” to calls to fire TVP news anchor Hanny Lis. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed certain distress after a rather unflattering television interview conducted by Ms Lis, who has since been suspended. (In Polish ‘lis’ is ‘fox,’ which – sorry – Ms Lis is.)

Urbanski held an unofficial meeting with TVP Directors telling them not to take orders from “any individuals because the Board as composed is unchanged,” reported Gazeta.pl (December 19).

Farfal sent a message (December 20) to the same TVP Directors telling them not to pay any attention to Urbanski and, according to the PAP news agency, threatened Urbanski with a criminal complaint. Obviously, as the new week opens court rooms will be crowded. Farfal’s first step in removing the errant board members will be to strike their names from the National Registry.

None of the last week’s political wrangling over who is or who is not in charge of TVP would have taken place had the seemingly endless political wrangling over amendments to Poland’s media laws reached some sort of conclusion. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) party drafted amendments to laws governing public television and radio, which the Sejm (lower house of parliament) passed. President Lech Kaczynski vetoed the bill with support from the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is headed by his brother and former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The political scene in Poland is dominated by the far right and really far right. Mr. Farfal and Mr. Moczydlowski are aligned with the really far right. The PO and two other political parties have continued attempts to move forward reform of the media law while the PiS has boycotted - “sabotaged,” said major television competitor TVN – the entire process.

And Polish politicians of all sides seem acutely aware that something went very wrong. “Several council members decided to have a coup,” said PiS spokesperson Przemyslaw Gosiewski. “We have a situation in which the tail tries to wag the dog.” Gosiewski supports Mr. Urbanski.

“The best and most appropriate solution would be the resignation of all members of the supervisory board,” said PO spokesperson Zbigniew Chlebowski, interviewed on Radio ZET (December 21).

“What is happening in public television is an atrocious situation," said Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski to TVN24. “It does not serve Poland, does not serve to build a good image of the Polish state, both at home and abroad.”