New gov't changes the channel

Tomasz Borysiuk and Lech Haydukiewicz, candidates proposed by a coalition of the League of Polish Families (LPR) and Self-defense (SO) are going to join the reformed, five-person National Radio and Television Council. They obtained 242 and 241 votes respectively, and beat out Civic Platform's representatives, Tomasz Arabski and Lech Jaworski.

Borysiuk was the only candidate for KRRiTV who failed to obtain the recommendation of the Sejm Committee for Culture and Mass Media. He stressed the need to maintain pluralism in the news and claimed the parties that recommended him for the post were discriminated against on state-controlled television.

The new KRRiTV will be composed of five members - two nominated by the President, two by the Sejm and one by the Senate. The opposition claims that this system of voting effectively hands over control of the body to the Kaczyński brothers. Former Ombudsman Andrzej Zoll also said that the recent amendments to the media law were unconstitu-tional.