Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has shut down state-run 24-hour news channel TVP Info, according to reports.
The BBC reported that Tusk had shuttered the channel as part of a bid to “depoliticise” public media. A resolution on Tuesday evening local time was backed by a majority in Warsaw’s Parliament calling for public TV and radio to display “independence, objectivity and pluralism.”
Reports state that the head of the TVP network, the head of state news agency PAP and also the head of Polish radio have all been dismissed. TVP Info was taken off air on Wednesday.
Tusk, a pro-EU Prime Minister who leads a coalition government, was sworn in earlier this month after winning a mandate in October. His opponents, the Law and Justice Party, staged a sit-in at the TVP headquarters after the news channel was shut down.
Critics of the Law and Justice Party, which until recently was in government, say the public service broadcaster had become a “propaganda machine” for the party, according to the BBC.
