Treasury Ministry looks to give academics control over TVP
The Treasury Ministry is looking at a scheme to cast the nation's No. 1 broadcaster from the topsy-turvy political waters and improve management of the state-owned firm, ministry officials announced last week.
The plan calls for turning Telewizja Polska (TVP) over to the hands of university officials with the additional goal of returning the public broadcaster to its roots as a guardian of Polish culture, officials said. Opponents of the move argue that the plan itself is politically motivated and will do little to take politics out of TVP's unstated mission. Moreover, other market watchers say although academicians may be very skilled in spending money, they fall short in business acumen and thus are ill-equipped to create a competitive, self-financing broadcaster.
The ministry's plan to transfer ownership of TVP into academic hands is currently under discussion among government officials but no deadline has been announced concerning preliminary government approval before heading to Parliament as an amendment to the existing media bill.
"It would work like a regular company limited by shares, so universities with one share each would be able to call annual shareholders meetings and would elect the supervisory board and the managing board," said Filip Wejman, one of five lawyers based at Krakow's Jagiellonian University who prepared the project for the Treasury Ministry, the current official owner of TVP.
"It's impossible to run a company when there is more than one decision-making center, which is the case now," Wejman said. "This is why we decided that under the new system, TVP should be governed by one entity and not various bodies."
Under the current legal structure, two bodies guide activities at TVP: the Treasury Ministry, as official owner, and the National Television and Radio Council (KRRiTV), the media watchdog that is responsible for electing TVP's nine-member supervisory board.
This dual structure has also fallen short of its intended goal of non-partisanship, media watchers said. The current TVP's supervisory board was elected almost three years ago when the post communists were in power and is said to be dominated by affiliations with the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). For example, TVP's president is Robert Kwiatkowski, who also coordinated Kwasniewski's presidential election campaign. At the same time, there are no members of managing boards of public media affiliated with the AWS, although that could change next May when the terms for current supervisory board members expire.
"So far, impartiality of public media was impossible because TVP, for example, was treated like war booty," argued Jaroslaw Sellin, a member of the KRRiTV, which is affiliated with Solidarity Election Action (AWS).
In addition, critics of the current system argue that in practice there is little coordination between the dual powers charting TVP's coarse.
"I understand that this dualism of competence was meant to prevent TVP from becoming a political propaganda transmitter," Wejman said. "But at the same time it was how a fatal crossbreed was created, which now hinders effective management of TVP."
While members of the KRRiTV cannot be members of political parties, the council itself is not free from political liaisons, Wejman argued. Under the current television and radio bill, the nine-member council is elected by Sejm, the Senate and the president. "On the other hand, the Treasury Ministry, TVP's owner, is also in a political position, so what you get is a total war of partisanship, opposite interests," Wejman said.
In addition to that, TVP's programming is too similar to what commercial stations offer and thus neglects its public mission, Wejman said. "So, one can ask what do we need a public broadcaster for?" he said.
The Jagiellonian team drafting the proposal considered several ways to create a body to run TVP.
"We came to a conclusion that the best candidate, who would be at the same time free of political compromises and professionally focused on culture, information and education, are universities," Wejman explained. "Under the constitution, they are independent bodies and their rectors manage huge funds. So professionally, they are prepared to run such a company as TVP."
According to Sellin, the Treasury Ministry's project is the first idea in a decade to revamp the public broadcaster. "It's been years now that politicians have called for vetting the media of political pressures, but there has been nobody who has actually done something," Sellin said. According to Sellin, it's time to draw conclusions from the fact that the KRRiTV, a would-be guardian of the media order on the Polish market, hasn't been up to expectations.
"So, I am a moderate supporter of the project even if it means that the KRRiTV will lose the right to elect TVP's supervisory board" Sellin said.
The idea of turning the public broadcaster over to academic circles likely will face a political storm, especially from the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), which currently has a tight grip on TVP.
"The real motive behind that project is to gain impact on TVP's managing board," said Lech Nikolski, an SLD member of the Culture and Media Parliamentary Committee.
Currently, the KRRiTV exercises strong control over TVP's management and programming through nomination of the broadcaster's 10-member supervisory board. Under the proposed ground rules, KRRiTV would relinquish much of the control to university shareholders electing only one board member. However, the council could exercise a certain watchdog function through its position on TVP's 11-member programming council, although it would cede six seats to new shareholder appointments under the proposed rules.
"The Programming Council is an important body as it will have the right to call a shareholders meeting if the mission of TVP is not implemented," Wejman said.
But some opponents say why tinker with the current system, especially considering uncertainties about academic circles.
"Rectors acting as TVP's owners and electors of the supervisory board would change nothing," said Witold Knychalski, current president of TVP's Supervisory Board. "At the end of the day, they would also be suspected of political relations."
