Poland: Parliament adopts new media law - End of press freedom?

The Polish parliament has approved a new, controversial media law.

The crumbling freedom of the press in the country is now even more at risk.

Warsaw - After a nerve-wracking session in the Polish parliament, a vote was taken on Wednesday to amend the Broadcasting Act *. The amendment provides that in future broadcasting licenses may only be issued to foreigners if they “have their headquarters or their place of residence in the European Economic Area”. In addition, the adopted amendment requires that the licensee must not be dependent on someone whose headquarters or residence is outside this economic area.

The government in Poland * argued that they wanted to protect themselves against propaganda attempts by great powers such as Russia or China.

In general, however, the law is seen as an attempt to

silence

the independent, government-critical broadcasting network

.

The US broadcaster

currently still owns the majority of the shares in the private broadcasting group.

Should the law go into effect, the

could

lose its broadcasting license and

forced to sell its shares.

New media law passed in Poland - critics fear threat to freedom of the press

The opposition sees the change in the law as a threat to freedom of the press in the country and a threat to good relations with the United States. Shortly before the vote, a majority of them voted to postpone the decision on a possible change to the media law. The President of the Parliament, Elzbieta Witek, of the PiS party that formed the government, rejected the application due to a formal error and repeated the vote with some delay. Together with the anti-system party Kukiz 15, the national conservative ruling party passed the new media law in the second round with 228 yes to 216 no votes. The law has not yet been officially passed and the Senate has not given its approval.

The USA is also critical of the new draft law: the US State Department clearly reminded Warsaw to stand up for freedom of the press and democratic values.

High-ranking representatives of the US State Department had contact with Polish representatives in the hours before the vote, the ministry spokesman said.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki rejected the criticism of the US State Department: “There is no intention here with regard to specific TV channels.” They just want to prevent companies from non-EU countries from being able to buy into any Polish media.

Amendment to the law in Poland endangers freedom of the press in the country: USA and EU criticize government plans

Calls for freedom of the press and media pluralism are also being heard from within the EU.

The planned media law sends a "negative signal".

Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova shared her opinion on Twitter: "Strong democracies welcome media pluralism and diversity of opinion, do not fight against it".

In the wake of the worrying developments in the member state, she is calling for an EU-wide law on freedom of the media.

In the run-up to the vote, Poland's government alliance broke - also due to disagreements about the new law.

On Tuesday, Poland's Prime Minister Morawiecki withdrew his deputy Jaroslaw Gowin from office, whereupon the latter ended the cooperation between his group Porozumenie (in German: Understanding) with the PiS.

Poland's government has long tried to nationalize the media on the pretext of national security. The public TV broadcaster

now used as a propaganda tool for the government. According to an assessment by

, Poland is currently 64th out of 180 on the list of press freedom - and the trend is downward. Hungary's handling of the media is also repeatedly at the center of media law debates.