With his small rectangular glasses and navy blue suit, Ernest Zozun seems to be in his element on the set of Polish public television TVP Info, where he has been co-hosting an international news program since January. And yet, this former Polish public radio correspondent in Russia and Iraq just came out of a lengthy spell in the wilderness. In 2020, after more than 30 years in public media he was dismissed from the iconic public radio station Trojka after condemning the censorship of a song criticizing the then-national conservative government.

Between 2015 and 2023, hundreds of journalists working for Poland's public broadcasting system were subjected to layoffs, voluntary redundancies and demotions when the PiS (Law and Justice) held power. This conservative government, which was condemned multiple times by the Court of Justice of the European Union for its breaches of the rule of law, had quickly seized control of public service broadcasters.

By 2016, terrestrial television had become a relay for the government's action and a machine for slandering the opposition. This pro-government stance was most evident on TVP's 7:30 p.m. news and TVP Info, its 24-hour news channel. In October 2020, as tens of thousands of demonstrators were driven to protest in the streets by the hardening of Poland's abortion law, TVP headlined its prime-time bulletin: "Leftist fascism is destroying Poland."

Since the end of December 2023, when public television resumed service after several days of disruptions, the news tickers have become more understated and factual. This new look stemmed from the takeover in Warsaw a few days earlier – of a pro-European coalition that came to power after the October elections and which had promised to end "this fabric of lies."

Representatives for the PiS, now in opposition, are now regularly handed a microphone without being demonized. And many former journalists who were once banned from public service have returned to it.

"For eight years, under PiS, the foundations of the public media were destroyed. They were brutally politicized. The propaganda and language of hate were so strong in the public media that it's a bit like the calm after the storm," noted Dorota Nygren, a media specialist with the think tank Polityka Insight. This former public service radio journalist had herself been relegated to the archive department in 2017.

"We're not here to mold people's minds, unlike what PiS did with public media, which didn't respect any journalistic standards," added Mateusz Mazzini, a freelance journalist from the print media who joined the English-language public broadcasting channel TVP World in May. In his weekly program, the 30-year-old invites renowned experts and academics to reflect on current international affairs.

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