PiS says it won't take part in election debates in TVN24

The refusal comes as Donald Tusk, the leader of the largest opposition party Civic Platform (PO), has called on PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński to face him in person ahead of the closely contested October 15 parliamentary election.

"This station has shown that it actively takes sides in the political debate in Poland, de facto campaigning for politicians connected with Donald Tusk," PiS said in a statement posted on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

TVN24, Poland's biggest private news channel, said in a post on X that PiS was showing a "disregard for voters" by refusing to participate.

"The arguments used are an attempt to limit the independence and freedom of the media, and to avoid answering journalists' substantive questions," it said.

Media freedom is a closely watched issue in Poland with observers saying parties compete on an uneven playing field and accusing PiS of having used its eight years in power to turn public broadcasters into a party mouthpiece.

Poland scores second to last among its European Union peers, just before Hungary, on a press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

PiS says it is foreign-owned outlets such as TVN24, not public media, that distort debate in Poland and act against the country's interests.

In 2021, the party angered the United States with a bill, eventually vetoed by President Andrzej Duda, that would have tightened rules around foreign ownership of media. Critics said the law was designed to allow the party to take control over TVN, an accusation PiS denied.

Kaczyński, who launched PiS in 2001 with his twin brother Lech, and Tusk, a former European Council president, last met in a public debate in 2007. Many political observers have said that meeting was a turning point that cost PiS government in that year's election.