public broadcasting and the populist right in Slovakia and Poland

The Slovak government, pro-Russian, wants to get its hands on public broadcasting. While the Polish government, pro-European, wants to restore freedom of the press after the passage of the ultraconservative party.

Since returning to power in Slovakia at the end of 2023, Prime Minister Robert Fico and his government have undertaken controversial reforms in several areas. After justice, it is public broadcasting which is in turmoil, with journalists increasingly worried about their independence.

While in Poland, the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, from the coalition of pro-European forces, elected at the end of 2023, is cleaning up the media after the ultranationalists and conservatives of PiS came to power .

Slovakia: the Minister of Culture worked for a conspiracy channel

Nominated by the far right allied to Robert Fico, Martina Šimkovičová, the Minister of Culture, indicated that a change was needed in the management of the Slovak public broadcaster, RTVS. For someone who previously worked for a conspiracy channel, the priority is to ensure that what she considers to be “censorship” – and to cite as an example the themes of Covid and Ukraine on which, according to the minister, no discordant opinion is tolerated on the air. Several hundred journalists, from RTVS and independent private media, signed appeals to protest against the steps taken by this minister. Martina Šimkovičová also stood out by advocating the renewal of cultural relations with Russia and Belarus, in accordance with the pro-Russian turn initiated by Robert Fico since his re-election.

The assassination of a journalist led to the resignation of Robert Fico in 2018

The press and the independence of journalists are all the more sensitive subjects in Slovakia since the assassination of investigative reporter Ján Kuciak and his partner in 2018 had a profound impact on the country and led to the resignation of Robert Fico and his government of the time. And with the return to power of Robert Fico, the press is in difficulty again, he is very aggressive at press conferences. For Reporters Without Borders, “the Slovak government is trying, surreptitiously, to deprive public broadcasting of its independence.” The government’s attempt to impose control over public media “threatens the rule of law and mocks EU demands”believes Reporters Without Borders.

“I regret that Slovakia is sending yet another signal that calls into question fundamental democratic principles, this time regarding the functioning of independent media”declared Head of State Zuzana Čaputová, whose successor must be elected in the presidential election with a first round this Saturday with an ally of Robert Fico as favorite: Peter Pellegrini.

Poland: public TV presenter apologizes to the community LGBT

This is one of the objectives of the coalition elected in December 2023 in Poland: to restore freedom of the press and the right to information. When the ultraconservative Law and Justice party (PiS) came to government eight years ago (2015-2023), it quickly took control of the media. The oil giant Orlen bought the major publications and put people close to the party at the head of television and radio channels. And TVP, the public TV channel, was really seen as a pro-government channel, bordering on propaganda for some. Anti-immigration, anti-LGBT subjects, reports which would show that the European Union and Germany would threaten the sovereignty of Poland, everything went in the direction of a real state tool to disseminate its ideas.

Then the new Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who promised a return to “democracy” therefore quickly took matters in hand and the managers of these channels were dismissed. A decision which did not fail to cause debate in Poland, because the methods used sometimes border on legality. Quickly afterFollowing the change of management, the TVP channel invited two people from the LGBTQIA+ community and the presenter apologized for the last eight years of the insults they had uttered on the channel. But the presenter was new to the channel, and had not uttered an insult to the LGBTQIA+ community before. Other than that, change will take time. TVP, also launched a project on March 18 to recruit 50 journalists and presenters,and what to gradually renew their workforce.

The government also wants to get rid of religious publications

Lhe Minister of Culture, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, emphasizedthat Poland was a secular country. He promised that the state would no longer finance Catholic publications as the PiS government did. A new list of media outlets that will receive public subsidies was published last week. And in fact, there are no longer any religious magazines. And the culture minister insisted there were many conservative media outlets on the list, sline of the plurality of media to which the new coalition in power wants to commit. Which was not really the case during PiS’s time in power. The party had tried to buy the private channel TVN, owned by Americans, because it was too critical of the government.