On December 19, 2023, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Poland, dismissed the then-current state media directors and their supervisory boards, most notably those of public broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP), appointing new ones in their place.

[1] The move was met with criticism and accusations of illegality by the dismissed management and the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, causing a parliamentary intervention in the TVP headquarters.

[7] On December 14, citing journalistic freedom and independence, a protest of the Warsaw club of Gazeta Polska "in defense of free media" was held in front of one of the TVP buildings, attended by employees of the state-owned station, as well as Law and Justice politicians.

[8][9] On the same day, at the request of a group of Law and Justice deputies, the Constitutional Tribunal banned the possibility of removals and changes to the TVP and Polish Radio board of directors until the hearing scheduled for January 16, 2024.

[12][13] On December 19, 2023, the Sejm passed a resolution on "restoring the legal order and the impartiality and integrity of the public media and the Polish Press Agency" with 244 votes in favor.

[15] On December 20, Piotr Zemła [pl], the newly appointed head of TVP's supervisory board, arrived at the television headquarters on Woronicza Street.

Jacek Sasin blamed the incident on "a person accompanying the new director," while Szymon Hołownia, serving as the Marshal of the Sejm, indicated that it may have been done by a security employee.

[24][25][20] A group of IT specialists from TVP secured the new management's access to most of broadcaster's social media, removing the role of administrator from its key representatives.

Since those taking place on December 24 coincided with Wigilia celebrations, that day saw protesters exchanging Christmas wafers among themselves in the traditional manner and the occupied Television Information Agency [pl] building at Warsaw Insurgents Square being visited by a priest.

[34] On December 24, Mateusz Matyszkowicz [pl], the CEO of TVP prior to the takeover, resigned from his position and the pre-takeover supervisory board appointed Maciej Łopiński as his successor.

[39][40] During the night, the National Media Council appointed Wiadomości anchor and former Television Information Agency president Michał Adamczyk [pl] as the CEO of TVP despite the role having already been given to Tomasz Sygut during the initial takeover.

Adamczyk issued a statement in which he characterized the actions of the new government as being "illegal" and causing "huge damage," and promised to "restore legal and corporate order in [TVP] as soon as possible, punish those responsible for breaking the law, and resume the operation of all broadcasters."

[41][42][40][43] As of December 27, TVP's new management did not foresee having to make any penalty or compensation payments in relation to commercial breaks being disrupted to various degrees, up to and including not being aired at all, during the takeover.

[53] Under new editor Danuta Dobrzyńska, Telewizja Polska announced that the program Teleexpress would resume on January 4, 2024, and would be broadcast from the Woronicza 17 (also TVP Sport and 19.30) studio.

After a break of 7 years, the presenter Maciej Orłoś was back for host and the new face Aleksandra Kostrzewska, from channel TVP Info also joined Teleexpress.

[55] On January 9, 2024, the 13th Commercial Division of the National Court Register dismissed the application to enter the new members of TVP's supervisory board and Tomasz Sygut's presidency of TVP into the National Court Register on the basis that, contrary to the arguments of the new government that the culture minister was empowered to make management changes due to his representing the state treasury (i.e. the sole shareholder of Polish public media), the relevant competencies had not been assumed by the minister and so he could not use commercial law to unilaterally appoint management members.

Andrzej Duda, the president of Poland, made a similar statement about the decision confirming the takeover to have been an "absolutely blatant violation of the constitution and the law.

"[56][57][58] On January 13, 2024, Michał Adamczyk and his deputies Marcin Tulicki and Samuel Pereira left the Television Information Agency building after almost a month of occupation.

Culture minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz responded by declaring the Tribunal's verdict to itself have no legal significance due to judgments by Polish and European courts which found that changes made to the Tribunal under the Law and Justice government meant that it no longer constituted a legitimate judicial body and due to individual judges involved with the ruling either being illegally or otherwise incorrectly appointed (Wyrembak and the Tribunal's chief justice Julia Przyłębska) or having a conflict of interest due to having previously been involved with changes to the media law at the heart of the ruling (Krystyna Pawłowicz and Stanisław Piotrowicz).

The decision was welcomed by Mariusz Błaszczak, the head of Law and Justice's parliamentary caucus, who said that the liquidator appointed to run Polskie Radio no longer had any basis to do so.

[81][82] The government claims that the takeover was possible as a result of a legislative loophole, where the Minister of Culture was able to apply the Commercial Companies Code directly.

[1] The president Andrzej Duda called on the Council of Ministers to respect the legal order,[83] and would later refer to the situation around the takeover when announcing his intention to veto the new government's budget related bill (which included 3 billion PLN for public media) on December 23.

[84] Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded by claiming that the measures were intended to restore legal order and decency in public life, in line with the president's intentions.