Polish state TV and radio to go into liquidation

Poland's new pro-EU coalition government has said it is putting the country's public television, radio and news agency into liquidation.

The move comes as part of its pledge to restore impartiality to state media.

Last week, Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz took the state 24-hour news channel, TVP Info, off air and sacked the boards of the public media.

Opposition MPs from the Law and Justice (PiS) party called the sackings illegal and responded with sit-in protests.

President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, added the sackings had caused "anarchy" and called on the new government to adhere to the legal order.

In a brief statement, Mr Sienkiewicz said putting the companies into liquidation would allow them to continue operating while restructuring took place. It would also avoid staff layoffs, he said, adding the companies could be taken out of liquidation at any time by their owner, the culture ministry.

The minister said he had taken the decision due to President Duda's decision to veto a government bill on Wednesday that provided 3bn zloty (€695m; £603m) in funding next year for public media. Mr Duda justified his veto saying the new government's installation of new management had violated the country's constitution.

Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his government now planned to spend the money on cancer treatment and psychiatric help for children.

Roman Giertych, a lawyer who has represented Mr Tusk and is now an MP for his party, said the culture minister's decision "ends the legal dispute" and allows the government to appoint liquidators who can conduct restructuring.

The head of President Duda's office, Marcin Mastalerek, said the liquidation announcement was an "admission of defeat" by the government, one they chose after they could not find a legal way to change the public media management boards.

Rights groups questioned the manner of the dismissals. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights said public media required urgent reform, because they had become "a propaganda mouthpiece of the ruling camp" under the PiS-led government that had created political and legal conditions that made carrying out such reform for Mr Tusk's government "very difficult".

"However, we cannot fail to notice that the way of starting the changes in the public media raises serious doubts," the group said.