Polish president defies new government in battle over control of state media

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland‘s political battle over state media continued Wednesday because the president filed a revised spending invoice in defiance of the brand new pro-European Union authorities’s objective of liberating the media from political management.

President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the earlier right-wing authorities, had vetoed the brand new authorities’s invoice that offered 3 billion zlotys ($762 million) for the general public media. His proposed invoice strips that funding out.

Poland‘s state-owned media have change into the primary battleground between the coalition authorities of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the conservative Regulation and Justice celebration which previously held energy and whose allies retain a presence at state information company headquarters.

Tusk received energy on guarantees to revive nationwide unity and democratic norms, together with by means of the reform of public media. His authorities holds 248 seats within the 460-member decrease home, or Sejm. Its subsequent session is Jan. 10-11.

Duda stays in workplace for an additional 12 months and a half, and his veto is an early signal of the difficulties Tusk is prone to face. Some observers say Regulation and Justice hopes to keep up management of state media and push its message forward of native administration and European Parliament elections subsequent 12 months.

Public media in Poland is funded by taxpayers and is required by the constitution to be free of political bias. But critics have accused Law and Justice of using media as a propaganda mouthpiece that has divided the nation by spreading disinformation, xenophobic and homophobic content and seeking to discredit Tusk and other pro-EU politicians.