Polish public television as “political loot”

Katarzyna Pokorna-Ignatowicz

English version of the article

Because of its responsibilities regarding society, public television has been a constant element of European media systems for many years. For more than 15 years TVP has played the role of a public TV broadcaster, being constantly politically limited in fulfilling goals assigned to it by Polish law. Over the last 15 years TVP has had eight presidents and all political groups have tried to strengthen their influence over it, treating TVP as “political loot” of the victorious party. The authoress implies that these dealings are a result of political practice and low level of political culture. This results in TVP not aiding in the process of development of Polish democracy and civic society. Therefore, the sense of existence of TVP in its current form may be reasonably brought into question.

KEYWORDS

Polish public television, TVP S.A., Polish media system, TVP’s political entanglement