Poland’s parliament passed a media bill on Friday tightening rules around foreign ownership of media in Poland. The controversial move appears to be aimed at silencing a news channel critical of the government, news channel TVN24, owned by U.S. media company Discovery Inc.
The bill will relations with the United States, Poland’s most powerful ally, at a time of heightened tension in eastern Europe over an increasingly assertive Russia.
Parliamentarians had not been scheduled to vote on the bill, but after a committee convened at short notice to discuss the issue it ended up on the agenda and was voted through in a matter of minutes.
The passing of the bill just before the Christmas break is a success for the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), as there had been a question mark over whether it could command enough votes to pass the contested legislation.
The bill must be signed by President Andrzej Duda to become law. Duda, an ally of the government, has previously said that takeovers of foreign-owned media groups should take place on market terms and not with forced solutions, in a sign he could use his power to veto the bill.
“The bill … will of course be analysed by us and the appropriate decision will be made. I have already talked about the point of view from which I will assess the bill,” Duda told reporters on Friday.
The U.S. State Department called on Duda to protect free speech, freedom to engage in economic activity, property rights and equal treatment.
“The United States is deeply troubled by the passage in Poland today of a law that would undermine freedom of expression, weaken media freedom, and erode foreign investors’ confidence in their property rights and the sanctity of contracts in Poland,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
The European Commission said the new law sends another negative signal about the respect of rule of law and democratic values in Poland.
“Once this bill becomes a law, the Commission will not hesitate to take action in case of non-compliance with EU law,” Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said in a statement.
Opposition MPs said the manner in which the committee was convened was illegal and breached democratic standards.
Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, deputy head of the committee and a member of the opposition Left grouping, said members had been told to attend by text message 24 minutes beforehand, when rules state they should be informed three days in advance.
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