Head of Polish public television dismissed

Poland’s National Media Council has announced it recalled Jacek Kurski from the post of president of Telewizja Polska SA (TVP), the country’s public television.
Shortly before the announcement, the country’s president Andrzej Duda has signed a 2 billion zlotys ($510 million) bill to fund public television and radio for his reelection campaign. TVP has long been considered the organ of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.
The right-wing populist PiS party that supports Duda has been long criticized for abusing public television stations to praise the government’s achievements and to tarnish the opposition’s reputation.
Poland will hold the first round of its presidential election on 10 May. Kurski is a member of the PiS, and a favorite of hard-liners within the party. Analysts say that the conflict over TVP has existed within the party for months, and that it had created a division between the members.
Kurski had held the post since January 2016. Meanwhile, TVP’s Supervisory Board appointed Maciej Lopinski as TVP’s acting CEO, the company announced on its website.
The global organization Reporters Without Borders called Poland’s public media “government propaganda mouthpieces”. According to the group, directors of the entities “tolerate neither opposition nor neutrality from employees and fire those who refuse to comply”.