Telewizja Polska S.A. (pronounced [tɛlɛˈvizja ˈpɔlska]; TVP), also known in English as Polish Television, is a public service broadcaster[3][4] in Poland, founded in 1952.

[16] In 1929, Stefan Manczarski constructed a mechanical television apparatus based on two synchronously rotating Nipkow disks, on the transmitting and receiving sides.

[17] Only later, work on launching a television station in Poland began in 1935 in Warsaw at the State Telecommunications Institute and Polish Radio.

It carried, among others: a telecine film "Barbara Radziwiłłówna" with Jadwiga Smosarska in the main role, and at that time work on 343-line electronic television was in progress.

The development of research on television, which was very advanced (the launch of a permanent service was expected in 1940), was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.

[22] The program was broadcast from the former bank building at Plac Powstańców Warszawy 7,[22] specially rebuilt and enlarged after war damage to meet the needs of the newly established institution.

[19] On April 30, 1956, the Warsaw Television Center (Warszawski Ośrodek Telewizyjny)[23] was opened, which provided access to TV programs to a larger group of viewers.

On May 1, 1956, the Television Transmission Center began operation with a transmitting station located in the Palace of Culture and Science and an antenna on the top of the spire at a height of 227m.

The opening of Poland to the West - characteristic of Gierek's era - allowed Polish television to have access to modern technologies from the free world.

The first result of the cooperation was the broadcasting of the first color program on July 22, 1971, using the French SECAM system - it was an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's monodrama On the Harm of Tobacco Smoking.

[27] On November 1, 1975, the first terrestrial satellite communication station in Poland was put into operation in Psary-Kąty (Świętokrzyskie Mountains), which significantly expanded TVP's broadcasting capabilities.

After 1989, TVP news programs were accused of being subject to political influence depending on who was in power in Poland, as well as being biased and lacking objectivity.

[35] In 1997, the first theme channel of public television was launched - Tylko Muzyka, but it ended broadcasting a year later due to formal and legal reasons.

[41] Since 1993, the legal status of the broadcaster has been defined by the Broadcasting Act, according to which Telewizja Polska is obliged to implement "a public mission ... by offering ... various programmes and other services in the field of information, journalism, culture, entertainment, education and sport, characterized by pluralism, impartiality, balance and independence as well as innovation, high quality and integrity of the message.

[48] On 19 December 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.

[59] It was again cancelled in January 2016 after an amendment of the media law in Poland, which caused fears of a lack of pluralism and independence of TVP.

[94] Since then, TVP has displayed bias towards the Law and Justice (PiS) party (then government), and was compared by critics with propaganda of the former Communist regime.

[95][96][97] TVP has also faced criticism for its portrayal of LGBT people, the political opposition, Jews, and other groups as a shadowy conspiracy seeking to undermine Poland.

[96] Polish political scientist and anti-racism activist Rafał Pankowski stated, "I am old enough to remember Communist-controlled television in the 1980s, and I can safely say that what we have now is cruder, more primitive, and more aggressive than anything that was broadcast at that time.

"[96] This contrasts with the testimonies that killer of Pawel Adamowicz was reading Gazeta Wyborcza, Dziennik Bałtycki, Polityka and Wprost[106] and watched TVN,[107] and Polsat but not TVP[108] TVP was heavily criticized in the run-up to the 2020 Polish presidential election, being described as the "mouthpiece" of the government[109] and as "peddl[ing] government hate speech" by the organization Reporters Without Borders.

The Council concluded not only were anti-semitic statements made in the show, it did not uphold journalistic standards: Wiadomości "turned into an instrument of propaganda of one of the candidates in this election".

Ombudsman Adam Bodnar stated, "The material not only reproduces stereotypes and heightens social hatred towards LGBT people, but also manipulates facts.

"[113][114][96][115] Following the change of government in the 2023 Polish parliamentary election, a TVP host formally apologized to the LGBT community for attacks broadcast against them.

[116] According to Timothy Garton Ash, "the broadcaster has descended into the paranoid world of the far right, where spotless, heroic, perpetually misunderstood Poles are being conspired against by dark, international German-Jewish-LGBT-plutocratic forces meeting secretly in Swiss chateaux.