Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 08, 2025

Polish parliament passes controversial new media ownership bill

Polish parliament passes controversial new media ownership bill

Government wins vote despite losing majority after coalition partner walks out and widespread national protests
Polish MPs have passed a controversial new media ownership law that could lead to the country’s largest remaining independent TV station losing its licence, but at the cost of several key votes that put the government’s longterm future in doubt.

After a night of protests in Warsaw and 80 other towns and cities against the bill, which opponents see as an attempt to silence an often critical broadcaster, the law passed on Wednesday by 228 votes to 216 in the 460-seat lower house.

The vote came amid stormy scenes after the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, on Tuesday fired his deputy, Jarosław Gowin, the leader of the junior coalition member Accord, prompting the party to leave the government.

The law – which is expected to be defeated in the senate before returning to the lower house, where an absolute majority will be needed to secure its passage – would prevent non-EU companies from holding a controlling stake in Polish media.

That would force the US media 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 Law and Justice party (PiS) that has governed Poland since 2015.

Discovery said in a statement after the vote it was “extremely concerned” but remained “resolute”. It said the bill was “an attack on core democratic principles of freedom of speech [and] the independence of the media”.

The channel appealed to the senate and the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, to oppose the bill and prevent it from becoming law. “Poland’s future as a democratic country in the international arena and its credibility in the eyes of investors depend on this,” it said.

The 13 MPs who formally belong to the Accord group have been increasingly at odds with the main partner in the United Right coalition, the populist PiS, and their departure deprived the government of its one-vote majority.

Gowin said his party was leaving the government “with our heads held high” after expressing deep disagreements over planned tax changes – the so-called Polish deal, intended to win the government re-election in 2023 – and the media bill.

However, PiS successfully persuaded enough MPs from smaller parties to vote in favour of the bill, which has drawn fierce criticism from both the EU and Washington, with Polish media reporting cash and other inducements were on offer.

Earlier the government lost four key votes, including one to suspend the session and postpone a vote on the media law. To howls of “Fraudsters”, the speaker, Elzbieta Witek, a PiS member, ordered another vote, which the government won.

The lost votes do not mean that the end of the government, which would require a formal vote of no confidence, but commentators agree PiS has been weakened and may now need to rely on a critical far-right party, Confederation, for informal support.

The government denies the measure is aimed at any one broadcaster, saying it seeks to prevent potential media acquisitions by non-EU countries such as Russia and China, and has rejected proposals to restrict the ownership ban to non-OECD countries.

But the move follows a sustained government drive to control Poland’s media in which public service outlets such as the state-run TVP television station become propaganda organs for the ruling party, while private, independent media have been steadily driven out of business.

The opposition Civic Platform, led since July by the former Polish prime minister and European Council president Donald Tusk, is determined to defeat PiS and has seized on media freedom as an issue that could unite a broad opposition alliance.

Radosław Sikorski, Tusk’s former foreign minister and a Civic Platform MEP, tweeted on Wednesday: “Our parliament will today be voting to disenfranchise TVN, Poland’s largest, American-owned independent TV station. If the bill passes, we will likely cross the point of no return toward a kleptocratic autocracy.”

Tusk tweeted after the vote: “The parliamentary majority, glued together with the mud of corruption and blackmail, is crumbling before our eyes. It may go on for a while but it is no longer able to govern.”

Washington has urged Warsaw to rethink, saying the proposed law would inevitably harm “defence, business and trade relations” between Poland and the US. Hundreds of Polish journalists and editors have also signed an open letter calling on the government to halt “the destruction of media freedom in our country”.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
Iran's Parliament Votes to Suspend Cooperation with Nuclear Watchdog
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
Explosions Rock Doha as Iranian Missiles Target Qatar
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Oman Set to Introduce Personal Income Tax, First in Gulf
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
×