Wróbel told Radio TOK FM the bill is “in the anteroom of government work,” awaiting Finance Ministry comments before being added to the cabinet’s legislative agenda. He hopes to finish the draft in August and move it forward after parliament’s summer recess, allowing delivery to the president “by the end of the year.”
The proposal would earmark 0.09% of gross domestic product—about PLN 3.7 billion (EUR 870 million)—for public broadcasters. Finance Minister Andrzej Domański calls that figure excessive; Wróbel said tying funding to a fixed, inflation-indexed sum might be “a better solution.”
The bill scraps the radio-television license fee, which last year yielded only PLN 600 million of an expected 4 billion. “Poles regard the fee as archaic,” Wróbel said.
He acknowledged the draft stalled while the governing Civic Coalition hoped opposition candidate Rafał Trzaskowski would win the presidency, which “would have eased passage of this milestone reform toward depoliticizing public media.”
Under the plan, the National Media Council would be abolished and the National Broadcasting Council expanded to nine members who would select boards of Polish Radio, public television (TVP) and the Polish Press Agency through live-streamed, transparent competitions. Chief executive and editor-in-chief roles would be separated, and TVP’s channel portfolio trimmed.
Late in July, Sejm Speaker Szymon Hołownia and Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska discussed the bill with Nawrocki. Wróbel said he hoped Hołownia can secure the president’s support, but added that if Nawrocki seeks a different draft “the work would likely restart—unless such a proposal already exists.”
Wróbel said the ministry is ready to negotiate amendments with the president or coalition partners.
“We promised Poles we would reclaim these media for them, not for ourselves,” he said.
(jh)
Source: PAP