A state-run Polish news channel has been pulled off air amid criticism that it had become too politicised.

The signal for TVP Info, a 24-hour station, was replaced by one from another TV station.

Managers of Poland’s public television and radio and national news agency PAP were also sacked, said the culture ministry.

Political opponents have said it is illegal and a move towards “dictatorship”.

Critics claim state-run media, especially TVP Info, had become a propaganda outlet during the right-wing Law and Justice party’s eight years in power.

Donald Tusk became prime minister earlier this month and has promised to create more balanced media channels.

On Tuesday, parliament passed a resolution urging “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”.

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The head of the National Broadcasting Council said the sacking of public media authorities was illegal and harked back to communist times.

“Disabling the television signal and the TVP Info websites is an act of lawlessness and recalls the worst times of martial law,” said Maciej Swirski.

Law and Justice politician and ex-deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski said he had sent a report to the prosecutor’s office on suspicion a crime had been committed.

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Others from the party gathered on Tuesday evening at the headquarters of public television in a show of support.

Former Law and Justice prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who led the county until ousted by Mr Tusk, posted on X: “The illegal actions of the minister of culture in relation to TVP, Polish Radio and PAP show how the authorities that supposedly care about the rule of law violate it at every step.

“We will not give up. We will not allow for a dictatorship to be built in Poland.”

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