concept of the common good.” 31 This situation has led to a significant decline in public trust in the public media and has set a dangerous precedent for disrupting the balance of political and civic forces in the country, tilting support from public funds towards the ruling camp. This advantage was particularly felt during the 2023 parliamentary elec ­tions, when public media were openly used to support the ruling camp’s election campaign. ODiHR’s analysis indicat ­ed that“The political reporting of the main public media (TVP1, TVP2, TVP Info, Jedynka) often presented socio-po ­litical events in a manipulative and distorted manner pro ­moting the ruling party, the government, and its policies. It conversely and consistently attacked the main opposition KO and its leader, and rarely mentioned other contesting parties, further deepening the political polarization in soci ­ety.” 32 After KO-led coalition won the parliamentary elec ­tions in 2023, they immediately announced that they would take steps to restore the independence of public media in the country, however, to date, no changes to the law re ­garding the both institutions have been introduced. 3. The state of liquidation of the Polish public broadcasting companies On December 19, 2023, the Sejm, now having a majority of KO-led coalition votes, adopted a resolution on“restoring legal order and the impartiality and reliability of public me ­dia and the Polish Press Agency” 33 . This resolution sparked a series of protests by PiS MPs and journalists associated with the previous ruling camp. On the same day, back then Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, citing the Commercial Companies Code, dis ­missed the authorities of public media, including TVP, by ­passing the National Media Council, which was staffed at that time by members associated with the previous ruling camp. Although the Commercial Companies Code grants the owners of companies(in this case, the State Treasury) the possibility to dismiss the Management Boards and the respective Supervisory Boards, the conclusion allowing the application of the Commercial Code in this case was not reconcilable with the systemic interpretation derived from the general model of public radio and television. The posi ­tion recognizing the competence of a government repre ­sentative to dismiss and appoint members of the bodies managing the activities of public radio and television com ­panies raised doubts among constitutionalists and special­ists, especially in the light of previous judgments of the Constitutional Tribunal 34 . When Piotr Zemła, the newly ap ­pointed head of TVP’s supervisory board, arrived at the tel ­evision building, he was blocked by, among others, PiS MPs. The blockade of the TV station led, among other things, to the disappearance of the main news channel TVP Info from the air for the first time in the history. The method of implementing changes in the boards of public media companies was also questioned by President An ­drzej Duda. Referring to the illegality of an attempt to take over the public media, he decided to veto the act imple ­menting the budget act 35 , questioning the financial re ­sources allocated by the new government to public broad ­caster. In response to this action, the Minister Sienkiewicz decided to put Telewizja Polska S.A., Polskie Radio S.A. and Polska Agencja Prasowa S.A. into liquidation to secure the continued operation of those companies 36 . The liquida ­tion state remains to this moment(September 2025) and the public media are operating with additional state fund ­ing. In the meantime, the composition of the National Me ­dia Council has been changed, and as of December 2024, its chairman is Wojciech Król, MP from the Civic Platform (KO). The new composition of the Council, having the ma ­jority of the current ruling party, officially repealed the res ­olution of the previous composition of the National Media Council, legitimizing the changes made earlier. Although liquidation is a state that should end after any necessary actions have been taken to carry out the liquida ­tion process, in 2025 public broadcasting services are oper ­ating under similar principles as before. In August 2025 Marta Cienkowska, The Minister of Culture and National Heritage, announced that a new media law is already pre ­pared and it will, among other things, dissolve the National Media Council, reduce the number of public television channels, and introduce a new, more transparent and de ­politicized method of electing public media management boards. After its introduction, the state of liquidation of public media is to be abolished. However, the adoption of this law depends not only on the ruling majority but also on the support for the changes of the new president of Po ­land – Karol Nawrocki, elected in 2025. There is also no certainty that the proposed changes will actually strength ­en the guarantees of political independence for appoint­ment process of both the KRRiT and the supervisory boards of public television and radio companies’ members. The new government’s actions to date have been aimed 31  Sprawozdanie o stanie ochrony języka polskiego za lata 2016-2017, Druk nr 3324, Rada Języka Polskiego 2019, https://orka.sejm.gov.pl/Druki8ka.nsf/0/C4B224C28DB ­9367BC12583CB0032CA99/%24File/3324.pdf[Accessed: 13.09.2025]. 32  Republic of Poland. Parliamentary Elections 15 October 2023. Limited Election Observation Mission Final Report, ODIHR, Warsaw 2024: https://www.osce.org/odihr/elec ­tions/poland/548260[Accessed 11.09.2025]. 33  Uchwała Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 19 grudnia 2023 r. w sprawie przywrócenia ładu prawnego oraz bezstronności i rzetelności mediów publicznych oraz Polskiej Agencji Prasowej, M.P. 2023 poz. 1477, Sejm RP. 34  Stanowisko Helsińskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka w sprawie zmian w mediach publicznych, Helsińska Fundacja Praw Człowieka 2023, https://hfhr.pl/aktualnosci/stanow ­isko-hfpc-ws-zmian-w-mediach-publicznych[Accessed 13.09.2025]. 35  In Polish law, the proper implementation of the budget requires the adoption of a so-called act implementing the budget act(pol. ustawa okołobudżetowa), which regu ­lates, among other things, the allocation of funds to individual budget parts. While the president cannot block the budget act itself, the budget-related act is subject to veto like any other act. 36  Komunikat Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego, Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego 2023, https://www.gov.pl/web/kultura/komunikat-ministra-kultu ­ry-i-dziedzictwa-narodowego[Accessed 13.09.2025]. State of public service broadcasting in Poland 9