Poland’s parliamentary speaker had already wished for a relaxing Christmas season when the ruling party PiS decided to quickly whip a controversial law through the Sejm. MPs received a text message to immediately attend a meeting of the culture committee on Friday last week. It lasted less than an hour: Then the government majority had decided to reject changes made by the opposition to a media law. Less than an hour later, the law was passed that would force the US owners of Poland’s leading independent television broadcaster TVN24 to sell their controlling majority to a new owner – presumably close to the PiS – within a few months.
As early as August 11th, the Sejm decided that only broadcasters should be allowed to work in Poland if the majority of their owners are from Poland or from the European economic area (EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). Actually, TVN24 also falls under this protection: formally, the station belongs to the Dutch-registered Polish Television Holding, a subsidiary of the US parent company Discovery. But the government decided that owners who are located in the European Economic Area, but also belong to another owner outside, are excluded.
In the Senate, the upper house of parliament controlled by the opposition, the legal service and other legal experts found that the anti-TVN law contradicts many points of Poland’s constitution, the EU treaties and a Polish-American trade agreement of 1990. On September 1st, the senators rejected the law with 53 votes out of 100 – a veto by the Senate can of course be overruled in the Sejm with a simple majority. But initially it remained quiet about the law – until Friday noon.
The TVN owner calls the law an “unprecedented attack on the free media”
As on August 11th, the anti-TVN law was passed after serious violations of the rules: Members of the culture committee must be notified of a meeting at least three days in advance, and the plenary also in advance. But in less than two hours, the anti-TVN law was a reality. The US Chargé d’Affaires in Warsaw commented that the United States was “extremely disappointed”.
TVN owner Discovery called the bill an “unprecedented attack on the free media” and on “Poland’s greatest and most important allies: Poland’s security and much of its economy rests on the United States.” The group announced that it would take “all legal steps” to continue TVN24. According to the law, Discovery would have to sell its controlling majority to a Polish company within six months of the law coming into effect.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda will decide whether it will actually come into force. This also comes from the ranks of the PiS and has approved a number of illegal laws since 2015. In the end, however, there was a crunch between him and PiS boss Jarosław Kaczyński. In August, after the anti-TVN bill was first passed, Duda announced it was unconstitutional and would veto it. Last Friday, however, Duda no longer sounded so clear: “Of course, we will analyze this law and make an appropriate decision.” Duda has 21 days for this: the president can sign the law, use his veto or send it to the politically controlled constitutional court for assessment.
The plan behind it? Perhaps the law is meant to divert attention from a string of juicy scandals
Even before Poland wanted to demonstrate against the anti-TVN law in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw and in around 80 other cities on Sunday evening, analysts puzzled why Kaczyński was pushing the law through now. The most common answer was: To at least distract the PiS core electorate, who TVN24 doesn’t like anyway, from a series of juicy scandals. Last week, among other things, it came out that bodyguards of the first PiS head of government Beata Szydło had lied about a spectacular accident and blamed a simple Pole; hacked emails from the prime minister’s chief clerk exposed the greed of an ex-defense minister; and the head of state television, TVP, apparently liked to send his driver out shopping for his wife. In surveys, the PiS had already crashed from its all-time high of 46 percent in autumn 2019 to just 28 percent.
Kaczyński openly messes with the US government over the anti-TVN law. TVN24 owner Discovery is currently teaming up with AT&T Warner, one of the most powerful US corporations. In August, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sharply condemned the crackdown on TVN24. The new US Ambassador to Warsaw, Mark Brzezinski, reiterated on December 1 in the US Senate, Rule of law and freedom of the press would be among its most important tasks in Poland. EU Commissioner Věra Jourová indicatedthat the EU Commission should also take action against Poland.