Sejm adopts resolution aimed to restore public media credibility and impartiality

In the late evening vote, 244 lawmakers were in favour of the resolution, 84 were against, with 16 abstentions.

Critics say both institutions came under political influence during the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party's eight years in office, with 24-hour news channel TVP Info becoming an outlet for government propaganda.

As many as 109 PiS lawmakers did not take part in Tuesday's vote as they went to the TVP headquarters to support the journalists working for the public broadcaster.

Former Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Małgorzata Gosiewska of PiS said on social media: "We are defending the independence of Polish television".

During an earlier vote that day, in which the Sejm voted in favour of launching an investigative commission into a so-called visa scandal in the foreign ministry, as many as 114 PiS lawmakers were not present.

The new pro-European Union government has vowed to create stations that would take a more balanced approach to public service broadcasting. Supporters of TVP Info say shutting it down would damage pluralism by removing a conservative voice.

"The Sejm (lower house of Parliament) ... calls on all state authorities to immediately take action aimed at restoring constitutional order in terms of citizens' access to reliable information and the functioning of public media," the draft resolution said.

Last week, a group of PiS lawmakers applied to the Constitutional Tribunal, which critics also say became politicised under the previous government, to rule on whether the government may take action aimed at liquidating public radio and television companies.

In a sign of the tensions between TVP Info and the new government the station was refused entry to a press conference with Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday.

Tusk has been subject to intense attacks from TVP Info, which has sought to portray him as dishonest, indifferent to the well-being of ordinary Poles and under the sway of Germany and Russia.

During the beginning of Tuesday's press conference the channel featured a black screen with the words 'Prime Minister Donald Tusk's press conference was supposed to be here'. Its broadcasts now also feature the words 'You have the right to choose' in the corner of the screen.

Tusk said he was counting on cooperation with the president and the opposition on the issue of reforming state media and that decisions would be made before Christmas.

However, in a letter to parliament speaker Szymon Hołownia, President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, said any changes to state-owned media must be carried out in line with the constitution.

"Without questioning the right to introduce changes by the parliamentary majority, it should be emphasised that a political goal cannot constitute an excuse for violating or circumventing constitutional and statutory regulations," he wrote.

Separately, Poland's Supreme Audit Office (NIK) said it had submitted two notifications to prosecutors concerning suspected crimes at TVP that could have resulted in financial losses.

The Sejm was also to debate a resolution calling for changes in the National Council of the Judiciary (NCJ), but Hołownia said the discussion and voting would likely take place on Wednesday.

Lawmakers also said several resolutions regarding the NCJ by the previous lower house were unconstitutional and appealed to what it described as its illegally-appointed members to resign.

Duda has repeatedly expressed his support for PiS' court reforms which critics and European institutions say violate the rule of law, which means that the new government may face obstacles when trying to undo them.

In a second letter to Hołownia on Tuesday, Duda said he would "never agree to the questioning of the status of judges appointed by the president of the Republic of Poland".

Poland needs to row back on some of those reforms, especially ones regarding a disciplinary system for judges, to obtain billions of euros in EU funds.