Andrzej Duda speaks during a press conference he gave on November 29, 2021 in Budapest afp_tickers
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–This content was published on December 27, 2021 – 02:10 PM
(AFP)
Polish President Andrzej Duda on Monday vetoed the controversial media ownership law that critics say seeks to silence news channel TVN24, owned by American Discovery.
“I am vetoing it,” Duda said in a televised statement, after the law was widely criticized from the United States.
Polish deputies approved the law on December 17.
The text prevents companies from outside the European Economic Area from having a majority stake in the Polish media.
Thus, the American media group Discovery would be forced to lose its majority position in TVN, one of the largest private Polish television channels, of which TVN24 is its news channel. It is considered critical of the conservatives in power.
The government defends itself by saying that the law protects Polish media from potential hostile actors like Russia.
Duda, who claims to agree with this principle, said it should not apply to existing trade and investment deals.
“The people I spoke with are concerned about the situation. They have different arguments. They spoke of peace and tranquility … We do not need a new conflict, a new problem. We already have many problems,” said the president.
Among others, Discovery had stated that the law “should concern any company that invests in Poland and anyone who cares about democracy and freedom of the press.”
– “Pressure makes sense” –
The Polish president has the support of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), although they have diverged on some issues in the past.
One example was in 2017, when Duda vetoed two judicial reforms that he claimed gave too much power to the attorney general, who is also the minister of justice.
As for the controversial media law, the United States’ trade manager in Warsaw, Bix Aliu, asked Duda to veto the rule.
“We hope that President Duda will act on his previous statements and use his leadership to protect freedom of speech and business,” Aliu had previously stated.
European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said the bill posed “significant risks to media freedom and pluralism in Poland.”
Thousands of Poles protested against the law this month outside the presidential palace in Warsaw, amid European Union flags and chants of “Free media!”
Following Duda’s veto, former Polish prime minister and former European Council president Donald Tusk, who heads the opposition Civic Platform party, said President Duda’s decision shows that “lobbying makes sense.”
The Law and Justice party already controls public television TVP, which has become a speaker for the Executive, and many regional media.
Since PiS came to power in 2015, Poland lost 46 places in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index, and currently ranks 64th.
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