There is a line of police officers stationed for protection outside Poland’s primary nightly news studio.
More police officers, shivering in the snow, and metal barriers encircle the whole TVP building, which is home to the public broadcaster.
Here, there’s a tremendous struggle for control of the airwaves.
However, it’s also a part of a much larger power battle that started when eight years of populist control were terminated by elections last October.
It’s really demanding. It’s absurd!” With a bundle of scripts in one hand, TVP news anchor Zbigniew Luczynski confesses as he walks by the cops to go on air.
“But our mission is very important to us: to tell the truth – and be objective.”
Donald Tusk’s alliance pledged to bring back media balance and cease supporting a “factory of lies and hatred” when he announced his candidacy late last year.
Public radio and TV had been extremely politicized under the previous right-wing government, some would argue dangerously so.
Thus, TVP’s top management was fired by the newly appointed culture minister in December, and the 24-hour news station was shut down.
The reaction was swift.
Leading opposition figures besieged TVP offices and decried an illegal takeover. They overpowered security and launched a sit-in by breaking into the lobby.
Later on, a competing management team broke into the city center’s main news facility.
The demonstrators had left the TVP reception area when we visited behind the scenes last week. However, the cops, ongoing identity checks, and anxiety persisted.
The journalists had relocated to TVP’s main studio facility, which was mainly utilized for entertainment shows, while news headquarters remained occupied.
Everywhere they could find space, including a former bathroom with taps protruding from the tiled walls, teams were conducting research, writing, and editing.
TVP Info, the 24-hour broadcaster, is back in action, albeit from nothing more than a broom closet.
Additionally back is the premier evening news program.
Wiadomosci changed its name to 19:30 to commemorate the break, which was the first in the company’s history.
The renowned “faces” led the departing team. There are only the techs left. One of them joked, “Still here, like the cockroaches.”
“We set out to alter everything, beginning with the wording. Since it has been the language of exclusion and hatred for the past eight years, Pawel Pluska, the new editor of 19:30, said.
“I want to show that this is a television that is open to everyone and all views will be presented here – and they are.”
During an editorial meeting, pictures from the opposition protest in Warsaw the night before were displayed on the screen behind him. TVP dispatched crews to report on it, eager to demonstrate their objectivity in action.
Law and Justice (PiS), the former ruling party, organized the demonstration in support of “free media” and in opposition to the coalition government’s policies.
One of the demonstrators, Jacek, stated me quite plainly, “There is no more democracy.” “They disobey the regulations. They follow their own set of rules.”
A large number of the chants were coarse and vehemently anti-Donald Tusk, calling the prime minister a “traitor” and an alleged “agent” of Germany.
These are the same derogatory remarks that the government has been making on state television for years, and they serve as a reminder of why it shut it down so swiftly.
They also serve as a reminder of Poland’s growing polarization.
Portraits of the two former MPs who were jailed this month for abuses of power were carried by numerous protestors.
Now, the men are publicly supported by Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, and are paraded by PiS supporters as brave “political prisoners”.
After they sought sanctuary in the presidential palace, their detention was a politically charged occasion.
There will probably be more in the future.
Donald Tusk has pledged to undo contentious court reforms that the EU claims politicized Polish courts.
But the Polish Constitutional Tribunal swiftly ordered the reinstatement of a national prosecutor chosen by PiS after the justice ministry fired him.
Last Thursday, opposition PiS MP Arkadiusz Mularczyk declared that the takeover of TVP was “the way to tyranny” in Poland while marching alongside the demonstrators in central Warsaw.
He skirted the question of whether public media, which is supported by tax dollars, had served as the PiS party’s megaphone over the previous eight years.
In Poland, 90% of the media is prejudiced. With reference to commercial networks, Mr. Mularczyk contended that they back the liberal ruling party.
The government’s tactics had raised “serious concerns” for the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights as well.
It also emphasized that hate speech had found a home on public channels, which had turned into a propaganda instrument.
Eventually, the government placed them under liquidation to make way for a complete overhaul.
“We made the proper decision. There were no more hygienic options. When I questioned Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski about the coalition’s tactics, he argued, “I think that what we are doing is very clean and responsible.”
“The issue is that it has been eight years without public media. It was Party TV, and every citizen paid for it. All we demand is independence for the public media.”
Additionally, that is what the newly recruited TVP members claim they want inside the police cordon.
However, Pawel Pluska acknowledges that the majority of PiS lawmakers view his journalists as “usurpers” and won’t speak with them directly.
A TVP cameraman was reportedly hit during the opposition rally for a “free” media, according to multiple sources.
Reporter Blanka Dzugaj confides, “There’s a lot of hatred,” as well as a lot of tears.
On social media, she’s been referred to as a “swine” and a government propagandist.
“It’s emotionally difficult, because we’re trying to do something really good and important, and we hear something like this.”
Her ambition to establish a “wholly new Polish TV” remains unwavering despite the mistreatment and disorder. What she refers to as “the most important thing in journalism” is that.
A portion of the right-wing viewership has already shifted to Republika, a channel with low viewership that has recently experienced an increase in viewers.
But for almost one-third of Poles, TVP continues to be their primary news source.
The new team hopes that their strategy can start to mend the breach for those who continue to watch.
Editor Pawel Pluska explains his reasoning, saying, “The audience has stopped hearing that voice every day saying ‘Tusk is German’ or that everyone else wants to devour, destroy, and dismantle Poland.”
“Everyone has their views, but we don’t have to fight.”