Members of Poland’s lower house of parliament have voted in favour of an amendment to the country’s Broadcasting Act to tighten rules on foreign ownership of media, drawing concerns about press freedom,
Al Jazeera reports.
The media law, which was passed on Wednesday, would prevent companies from outside the European Economic Area from holding a controlling stake in Polish media companies.
That would force US group Discovery to sell its majority stake in TVN, one of Poland’s biggest private TV networks whose news channel TVN24 is often highly critical of the government.
The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party says the law is needed to stop hostile foreign powers from taking control of powerful broadcasters and is in line with rules in other European countries.
But critics say it opens a path for a state-controlled company to take control of TVN, following a takeover of the regional newspaper group Polska Press by state energy giant PKN Orlen.
TVN urged the Senate and the president to reject the law, labelling the vote “an unprecedented attack on freedom of expression and media independence”.
The Senate is almost evenly divided with the opposition holding a slim majority. The country’s President Andrzej Duda is a member of the ruling PiS political party.
The vote came during a stormy session of parliament that at one point was interrupted when MPs approved an opposition motion to suspend proceedings to delay the media law vote.
In the end, the session resumed and the media law passed by 228 votes in favour and 216 against in the 460-seat lower house of parliament.
