Moment Polish state TV channel taken off-air amid propaganda allegations

A public Polish news channel was taken off air on Wednesday, 20 December, as the country’s new government dismissed executives from state media to restore “impartiality”, according to the culture ministry.

It came after Donald Tusk’s pro-European Union coalition took power last week from the Law and Justice (PiS) party, whose critics say damaged judicial independence and turned state-owned media into an outlet for propaganda.

Footage shows TVP news anchor Adrian Borecki interrupting programming to tell the audience that Polish media had been “taken over.”

The move came after Poland’s new parliament adopted a resolution for restoring public media impartiality on Tuesday.