Underscoring that it is a matter of honor for Poles to keep contracts, Polish President Andrzej Duda vetoed a media bill on Monday that would have required the US media company Discovery to renounce its controlling share of a Polish television network.
Apart from the honor segment, Duda has warned that the new media bill would’ve violated the 1990s treaty signed by the United States and Poland and could have cost Poland, where the nationalist government has challenged certain democratic norms, billions of dollars.
Discovery had previously threatened to sue Poland over its stake in the privately-owned Polish network, TVN – which is the largest American investment in Poland – which was first purchased by Scripps Networks Interactive for $2 billion.
Duda’s decision, which is expected to be supported in the US, is considered a victory for freedom of speech and media independence although it’s considered unpopular among many Poles.
The media bill, which was passed by Poland’s lower house of parliament, would have tightened the screws on foreign-funded media, prohibiting any non-European entity from owning 50% or more of a stake in Polish television or radio broadcasters, with the US-owned channel among the obvious targets.
According to the Law and Justice Party, which has argued in favor of the bill, entities outside of Poland should not have so much power in molding public opinion, stressing that protecting the media market against excess foreign capital has been considered strategic for the security and national security by many European countries.
Yet, the European Commission echoed this month US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s August statement that he is deeply troubled by the proposed bill.
The Polish Senate has previously vetoed and shelved the legislation, but the lower house overturned its decision in mid-December and has passed the bill during its final session in 2021
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