Ruling party submits law that could end US ownership of Poland’s biggest private TV station

A group of MPs from Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party have submitted a bill to parliament that would prevent media outlets from being owned by entities from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

The measure is seen to be aimed in particular at the country’s biggest private broadcaster, TVN, which is owned by Discovery, Inc. and is disliked by PiS for its often critical coverage of the ruling party.

Should the legislation proceed, it could cause tension with the United States, which has regularly defended TVN from government criticism in recent years. The bill is an act of “war against the USA”, according to a member of Poland’s National Media Council (RMN), a state body.

“The bill is aimed at clarifying regulations enabling the National Broadcasting Council [KRRiT, the state broadcasting regulator] to effectively counteract the possibility of entities from outside the European Union taking control of radio and television broadcasters,” reads the justification to the legislation.

The MPs indicate that they want to close what they see as a loophole allowing entities from outside the EEA to own broadcasters in Poland through subsidiaries they control in EEA countries. One such entity is Discovery, which operates TVN through a company registered in the Netherlands.

“Such a law means war with the USA, because it will expropriate or at least force the sale by the Americans of TVN,” Juliusz Braun, a former chairman of KRRiT and current member of the RMN, told Onet.

TVN itself issued a statement saying simply that its “ownership structure complies with the provisions of [Poland’s] Broadcasting Act” and that in 2015 KRRiT approved American investment in the broadcaster.

The US embassy has in recent years intervened on a number of occasions in defence of TVN when it has come under attack from PiS politicians or entitles linked to them.

Last year, when state broadcaster TVP – which is used by the government as a mouthpiece – attacked TVN, describing it as a “fake news factory”, the then US ambassador, Georgette Mosbacher, came to its defence.

Previously, she had written to the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, “expressing deep concern over recent allegations made by members of the Polish government against…TVN”. She described it as “astonishing that these public figures would attack journalists who were fulfilling the functions of an independent media”.

This week, the Rzeczpospolita daily reported that the acting head of the US embassy, Bix Aliu, has requested a meeting with KRRiT to discuss the “Americans’ concerns” over the fact the broadcasting licence for TVN’s news channel – which expires in September – has not been renewed, despite the firm applying for an extension 18 months ago.

Speaking to a parliamentary committee this week, KRRIT chairman Witold Kołodziejski confirmed that they have been analysing whether TVN should be counted as a non-EEA entity. If so, all its channels could lose their licences, notes Wirtualne Media, an industry news website

“Companies are artificially established in European countries” to enable non-EEA entities to control Polish broadcasters, said Kołodziejski. This is “discriminatory against Polish businesses”, he added.

The new legislative proposal by PiS MPs has been met with concern from a number of media figures, who fear it could constitute another restriction on media freedom. Since PiS came to power in 2015, Poland has fallen every year in the annual World Press Freedom Index, reaching its lowest ever position of 64th this year.

“The government wants to kill a TV station it does not like,” wrote Bartosz Węglarczyk, editor-in-chief of Onet, Poland’s largest online news website. “The withdrawal of TVN’s licence has no substantive justification. It is legalised political murder committed against the free media.”

“TVN is a success of Polish democracy and free media,” tweeted Tomasz Lis, editor-in-chief of Newsweek Polska. “Defending them is defending free speech and democracy. That is what is at stake here.”

The proposed legislative has also been met with a lukewarm response from one of PiS’s junior coalition partners, Agreement (Porozumienie), without which the government does not have a parliamentary majority.

Speaking to TOK FM this morning, Agreement’s leader, Jarosław Gowin, said that the bill submitted by PiS had not been consulted with his party in advance and that he was not yet familiar with its content.

“I can only say that it is difficult for us to support a solution that could be used to limit media pluralism in any way,” he added. “For me, there is no doubt that, whatever we think about TVN24, it is an important element of that pluralism…[which] is one of the constitutive elements of a democratic state of law.”

Agreement’s spokesman, Jan Strzeżek, tweeted that he would “not want to wake up in a Poland where there is only one TV station. Media pluralism cannot be legally limited”.

The bill also received criticism from opposition politicians. Leszek Miller, a former prime minister and current MEP for the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), described it as “the latest sign of the building of a totalitarian state”.

“After signing a pact with pro-Putin groups, PiS is now entering a deep conflict with the US,” tweeted Barbara Zdrojewska, a senator from Civic Platform (PO). “The closure of TVN and TVN24 is a direct threat to democracy in Poland.”

PiS has long pursued what it calls the “repolonisation” of Polish media, by which it means reducing foreign ownership. It argues that allowing outside entities to have so much influence is against the national interest.

Critics, however, note that only a minority of Poland’s main broadcasters and newspapers are under foreign ownership. They see PiS’s policies as being aimed at silencing independent media outlets that do not provide positive coverage of the government.

Earlier this year, state-owned Polish oil firm Orlen completed the purchase of hundreds of local media outlets from their previous German owner. The move was hailed by government figures but has faced criticism from the opposition and been challenged in court.

Main image credit: Kornelia Glowacka-Wolf / Agencja Gazeta

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.