Public service broadcasting and media polarization in Poland

Abstract

The establishment by the conservative Law and Justice party of the first post-1989 majority government in 2015 is usually seen as the turning-point in the history of public service broadcasting in Poland. For the first time after 1989, one political group took full control of the public service media. Since then, critics of the current Polish government have accused the ruling party of a full and unprecedented capture of the public media. However, representatives of the Law and Justice party see their own actions simply as “part of the game”. I analyze in this essay all the most important events from the 2015 – 2019 period in the context of the history of public service broadcasting in Poland. I also take into account the wider political and social context, and focus in particular on the processes of societal, political and (not least) media polarization. To do so, I deal with examples of events that illustrate the current state of polarization of the Polish media system and the high level of politicization of public s ervice broadcasting.