The National
Broadcasting Council

‘Our task is to protect citizens' right to reliable and pluralistic information. The National Broadcasting Council operates independently and responsibly, bearing in mind the public interest and the stability of Poland's media landscape’, emphasised the Chair of the National Broadcasting Council, Dr Agnieszka Glapiak, during today's Senate meeting.

The Chair noted that the Council's priority is to protect viewers' rights and prevent legal violations.

‘I will not cease in my efforts to identify and draw legal consequences in the event of violations of regulations related to state security, social welfare and human dignity by providers on the air, on satellite or on the internet,’ she emphasised.

It has been a challenging year for the public media

One of the most significant challenges facing the National Broadcasting Council in 2024 was to monitor the situation regarding public media following the forced takeover of Telewizja Polska (Polish TV), Polskie Radio (Polish Radio) and Polska Agencja Prasowa (Polish Press Agency) in December 2023, which marked the beginning of their liquidation process. The Council described this unprecedented situation in its report, ‘Timeline of the Liquidation of Public Media in Poland’, which documents the course of events and their consequences.

Chairwoman Dr Agnieszka Glapiak drew the senators' attention to the drastic decline in viewership of Telewizja Polska programmes, particularly news services, as well as to the deterioration of public media's financial condition. She emphasised that this process had significantly limited citizens' access to diverse sources of information, posing a threat to pluralism and the quality of public debate.

Data cited by the Chair of the National Broadcasting Council indicates that, compared to 2023, TVP Info lost as much as 76% of its viewers in 2024. Dr Agnieszka Glapiak noted that the programme used to dominate the domestic news channel market. Today, however, it is outperformed by its competitors, with an average audience share of just 2%. Leading news and current affairs programmes have also recorded significant viewership losses.

‘The news programme “19.30”, which replaced “Wiadomości” under a new name after 21 December 2023, also lost viewers dramatically.  In 2024, “19.30” was watched by an average of between 700,000 and 900,000 fewer viewers than “Wiadomości”’. ‘Teleexpress’ and ‘Panorama’ also recorded significant drops in viewership, amounting to hundreds of thousands of viewers. These programmes and channels are still far from the results achieved in 2023, before the takeover of public television, the Chairwoman emphasised.

As the Chair of the National Broadcasting Council pointed out, public television has not yet regained the majority of viewers it had at the time of its so-called liquidation. Its competitors have benefited from, and continue to benefit, the decline in its viewership.

Denial of false information concerning funds from deposits

The National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) consistently ensures that funds from radio and television subscription fees are used properly. During the Senate meeting, the Chair once again categorically protested against the false allegation that subscription fee funds for public broadcasters in 2024 were being retained in its accounts.

The Chair of the National Broadcasting Council pointed out that subscription fee funds for public media companies in 2024 were transferred directly to the accounts of these companies and to court deposits.

‘I would like to emphasise that the majority of liquidators did not exploit the opportunity to withdraw funds from deposits. Over time, however, this situation has changed and been resolved to some extent. Therefore, the licence fee funds, which are intended for the performance of the public mission, was paid directly to those companies whose liquidators were legally entered in the National Court Register. In other words, it was paid to entities whose entries were deemed lawful by the courts’, said Dr Agnieszka Glapiak, the Chairwoman of the National Broadcasting Council.

In light of the flooding in Poland that occurred in September 2024, and recognising the importance of public media as a reliable source of information due to the presence of local correspondents from regional TVP centres, Polish Radio, and local broadcasters, the National Broadcasting Council decided to transfer funds directly to the companies' accounts. This included an additional PLN 22 million surplus from subscription fee revenues for the year 2022.

Dr Glapiak reminded us that the subscription fees are a public levy, as confirmed by the Constitutional Tribunal, and that it is the duty of the National Broadcasting Council to exercise special control over the spending of these public funds.

Monitoring programme quality and political balance

One of the National Broadcasting Council's (KRRiT) tasks is to monitor the implementation of the public service mission. As the Chair of the National Council pointed out, the results of this monitoring were decidedly negative in 2024.

As well as the previously mentioned significant decrease in viewership, it was found that TVP programmes had omitted information that was inconvenient for the ruling party. The takeover of TVP, Polish Radio and the Polish Press Agency was reported sparingly and from a biased perspective. There was no coverage of social protests against the liquidation of public media outlets. The agricultural protests taking place across the country, the government's insufficient aid to flood-stricken areas and the circumstances surrounding the arrest and inhumane treatment of Father Michał Olszewski and two former Ministry of Justice officials were not mentioned either. Information about the activities in Poland of Russian spy Pavel Rubtsov (alias Pablo Gonzalez) and his partner, a Polish journalist who was part of the so-called 'Wejście group', which forcibly took over the public media in December 2023, was also scarce.

An analysis of public media activity in 2024 revealed an imbalance in the access that political groups had to programmes. In this regard, the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) emphasised the importance of respecting the constitutional obligation to ensure political pluralism.

The Chair of the National Broadcasting Council recalled that the public media are obliged to provide political parties with the opportunity to present their positions on important public issues pursuant to Article 23(1) of the Broadcasting Act. Reports submitted by TVP and Polish Radio in liquidation, as well as Polish Radio's regional stations, show that, in 2024, public media devoted significantly more airtime to political parties in the ruling coalition than to opposition parties. Between January and December, Telewizja Polska devoted 84% of its airtime to ruling coalition parties and 16% to opposition parties. Polskie Radio in liquidation devoted 70% of its airtime to ruling coalition parties and 30% to opposition parties.

‘It is clear that there is no proper balance in the public media’, the head of the National Broadcasting Council emphasised.

Support for the media market and protection of audiences

One of the National Broadcasting Council's key tasks, guided by viewers' interests, is to grant licences for the distribution of television and radio programmes.

In 2024, the Council granted two new licences for terrestrial television programmes of a specialised news and current affairs nature, to be broadcast on MUX-8: to ‘wPolsce24’ and to ‘TV Republika’. Puls received a licence for the next period for broadcasting its programme ‘TV Puls’ on MUX-8. New satellite licences were granted to the ‘CANAL+ Polska’ Group, among others, for a sports programme, while the ‘TVN Discovery’ Group received three satellite licences for the next ten years for ‘TVN Style’, ‘TVN Fabuła’ and ‘TVN International’.

The National Broadcasting Council is also developing the market for programmes on cable networks. In 2024, 28 licences were issued for programmes broadcast on cable networks.

The National Broadcasting Council supports the development of local radio broadcasting. To this end, it allocates free frequencies for the granting or extension of local programmes, endeavouring to select entities operating in a given area that predominantly offer local content. In 2024, the National Broadcasting Council granted four new licences for local radio programmes ('Radio NA STOKU 94.8 FM' in Białystok, 'ESCE Suwałki', 'RMF MAXX in Tomaszów Mazowiecki', 'Radio Andrychów') and agreed to extend three existing licences ('POPradio' in Łowicz and Skierniewice, and 'Radio 7' – Sierpc). In the absence of an application offering predominantly local content, the National Council grants licences to national stations. In 2024, two such decisions were made – for ‘ESKA’ and ‘RMF MAXXX’.

The protection of listeners' rights

The Council also supervised video-on-demand (VoD) service providers and internet platforms, enforcing regulations concerning the protection of minors and prohibiting profanity and alcohol advertising.

The National Broadcasting Council examined over 5,000 viewer complaints, initiating 293 explanatory proceedings and six administrative proceedings. A total of 72 decisions were issued to penalise broadcasters, amounting to over PLN 2 million in fines, which confirms the effectiveness of the viewer rights protection system. Of all the penalty decisions:

- 32 concerned various aspects of advertising and sponsorship activities;

- 8 were related to the protection of minors from harmful content;

- 4 were related to the broadcast of profanity, which is contrary to the statutory requirement to protect the Polish language;

- 12 were issued for failing to provide facilities for disabled persons;

- 3 were issued for hate speech in broadcast programmes;

- 2 concerned disseminating pornographic content;

- 7 were issued for failing to report on-demand audiovisual media service activities to the register;

- 4 concerned violations of European quota regulations.

Challenges for the future

During the Senate meeting, the Chair of the National Broadcasting Council emphasised that the Council expects the state authorities to ensure stable, lawful financing of public media, and to recognise the Council's constitutional role as a regulator when implementing EU regulations.

Chairwoman Dr Agnieszka Glapiak pointed out that, in 2024, the National Broadcasting Council was overlooked on an unprecedented scale with regard to important activities relating to the future of the audiovisual market in Poland. This was particularly evident in issues such as the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) into Polish law. The same applies to the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA). Notably, the KRRiT has not received any official information regarding the ongoing implementation of the EMFA, nor has it been consulted on any associated draft legislation.

‘The government is preparing a new media law under the guise of implementing the EMFA, with which it intends to remove the current members of the National Broadcasting Council and change the way public media is financed. Dr Glapiak noted that the omission of the expert role of the National Council in drafting the bill to implement EMFA provisions into Polish law is evidence of the deliberate, politically motivated harassment of a constitutional regulatory body’, noted Dr Agnieszka Glapiak.

At the end of her speech, the Chair emphasised that the National Broadcasting Council is ready to cooperate and engage in dialogue on the issues raised during the speech, as well as on legislative matters related to the implementation of new legal acts.

‘The KRRiT report on its activities in 2024’ and ‘Information on the main problems of radio and television in 2024’ are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.pl/web/krrit/sprawozdania-i-informacja-z-dzialalnosci-w-2024-roku