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Post by Jaga on Aug 12, 2021 21:07:19 GMT -7
For a couple of weeks we are watching another terrible development of events in Poland. Law and Order tries to eliminate TVN 24 - American own broadcast station. They did not have enough votes, so they brought a couple of members from other parties on their site by promising them positions in government.
When the vote was against getting rid of the independent station - they just repeated it after they knew they would have enough votes:
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Post by Jaga on Aug 12, 2021 21:09:00 GMT -7
here is the US response to what is going on in Poland: www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/12/us-deeply-troubled-controversial-poland-media-billWashington has said it is “deeply troubled” by a controversial media bill in Poland that with its chaotic passage through parliament has raised questions over the ruling Law and Justice party’s (PiS) long-term prospects. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the bill, widely seen as targeting Poland’s largest independent TV station, TVN, whose news channel TVN24 has often been critical of the populist government, “threatens media freedoms”. Blinken said in a statement that a free and independent media was fundamental to the bilateral relationship between the two countries, warning that commercial investment could also be undermined by “Poland’s troubling legislation”. Polish government’s media bill is latest move to silence its critics Read more The Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, on Thursday denied the government was targeting a specific channel, telling a news conference the move was “just about tightening the regulations” on foreign media ownership. The bill, if it becomes law, would prohibit non-EU companies from holding a controlling stake in Polish media and could force the US media group Discovery to sell its majority holding in TVN, whose licence expires at the end of next month. The bill was “an unprecedented attack on freedom of speech and the independence of the media”, the company said, adding that Poland’s “future as a democratic country in the international arena and its credibility in the eyes of investors” were at stake. Polish business leaders also warned of the bill’s possible impact on transatlantic relations. “The economic and social consequences will be very negative,” said Maciej Witucki of the Lewiatan business confederation. “It is very likely that before any American company invests even one dollar in Poland, it will think 10 times. It is also a warning signal for other potential foreign investors from other countries that investments in our country are burdened with high risk.” |
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 10:59:36 GMT -7
 ( de Volkskrant is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000.) Five questions Polish media lawCan the free press in Poland be saved?After a chaotic session, the Polish government piloted the controversial 'lex TVN' through the House of Commons on Wednesday evening. Under the new law, Polish media can no longer be owned by non-European investors. This has major consequences for the independent channel TVN24. Can the free press in Poland be saved?Jenne Jan Holtland August 12, 2021, 17:32 Leader of the ruling party PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczynski (center) and the Polish defense minister (right) during the parliamentary debate on the media law on Wednesday. Image EPA
Leader of the ruling party PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczynski (center) and the Polish defense minister (right) during the parliamentary debate on the media law on Wednesday.Image EPADe persvrijheid in Polen staat onder druk. Wat beoogt het nieuwe plan van de regering? The bill passed by a narrow majority of the Polish House of Commons on Wednesday evening could deal a major blow to the country's main independent news channel, TVN24. The channel is (via a Dutch letterbox construction) in the hands of the American conglomerate Discovery. With the plan, the Polish government led by the ultra-nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) wants to put an end to this: Polish media should no longer be in the hands of non-European investors.
The government defends itself by pointing out the danger of hostile takeovers by Russia or China. The 72-year-old Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, widely regarded as the most powerful man in the country, even said he wants to protect the media from the infiltration of "drug lords." He did not mention TVN24 by name, but that is the only channel that is hit. It is feared that the umbrella TVN (which runs other channels in addition to TVN24) will fall into the hands of a Polish investor close to the PiS government – a kiss of death for the critical coverage. In Viktor Orbán's Hungary, the same process took place in numerous newspapers, TV channels and websites.Will the bill make it to the finish line?That is unclear. It now goes to the Senate, where the opposition has a majority. Unlike in some other countries, the Senate cannot block laws. Time will be sought before the package is returned to the House of Commons. Next, PiS needs an absolute majority on a second ballot; Wednesday the party did not arrive there. Finally, only President Andrzej Duda has to sign.
This week is exceptional in the already chaotic Polish politics: on Tuesday a small coalition partner was pushed out of the government after a year and a half of festering quarrel. Formally not because of the 'lex TVN' (the TVN law), although it may have played a role that Jaroslaw Gowin, the head of this dissident party, had spoken out against it. Due to the split, the cabinet has lost its majority in the House of Commons and all kinds of scenarios are possible for this autumn, including new elections. On Wednesday evening, Kaczynski's people resorted to parliamentary tricks and horse-trading: in exchange for support for the "lex TVN," hesitant opposition members were offered jobs at state-owned companies for their relatives.What does the plan mean for relations with the United States?Washington is Poland's most important strategic partner outside the European Union. For that reason, a 'lex TVN' was considered unthinkable for a long time: too risky for geopolitical relations, especially now that Warsaw is at loggerheads with Brussels over the rule of law. Under President Trump, then ambassador Georgette Mosbacher managed to prevent TVN from being targeted with a strong lobby.
Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken spoke concerned words on Wednesday. US senators warn that the law, if passed, could adversely affect cooperation in "security, business and trade" relations. The US has stationed 4-5 thousand troops in Poland as part of NATO cooperation. In one of the scenarios circulating, some of it could be transferred to Romania.What does the proposal mean for press freedom?Polish journalists are increasingly being made impossible: the attack on TVN24 is the latest round in a longer-lasting battle. After PiS came to power in 2015, the board of the National Media Council was fired to make way for loyalists. The public broadcaster TVP has been turned into a propaganda channel that portrays the opposition as a collection of traitors. Earlier this year, Polska Press – publisher of regional newspapers and magazines – was taken over by a state-owned company. Eight editors-in-chief lost their jobs.
Concerned Poles took to the streets in dozens of cities on Tuesday, under the slogan 'Free press'. Parent company Discovery spoke of an attack on “core democratic principles.” TVN24 has been waiting for a new broadcasting license for over a year and a half; the current one expires at the end of September, which only adds to the uncertainty.What drives the Polish government to go this far?Ideology, is the short answer. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki does not tire of emphasizing that "capital always has a nationality". In PiS's hawkish worldview, foreign ownership leads newspapers and TV channels to report anti-Polish. In that reasoning, the 'lex TVN' is not an attack on freedom of the press, but a protection of one's own sovereignty.Translation: Pieter with Google translate Dutch-English
Source: www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/is-de-vrije-pers-in-polen-nog-te-redden~b3f93f45a/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F |
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:17:43 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:17:47 GMT -7
 Poland Targets TV Channel, Limits Press Freedom and PluralismSenate Should Reject Bill Preventing Foreign Media Owners Lydia Gall, Senior Researcher, Eastern Europe and Western Balkans A woman holds a sign with the words "Free media" in Warsaw, Poland on August 11, 2021. © 2021 STR/NurPhoto via AP Poland’s lower house unleashed a major threat to media pluralism on August 11, approving a bill that prevents non-European shareholders from owning a majority stake in Polish media companies. While the government has argued it needs to strengthen legislation to prevent Chinese and Russian companies from controlling Polish media outlets, the impact of the law in practice would be on independent station TVN and its 24-hour news station, TVN24. TVN’s majority stake holder is US media company Discovery.
Hundreds of journalists denounced the move as retaliation against TVN’s reporting, widely seen as critical of the government. Polish ruling coalition partners and progovernment media have repeatedly attacked and stigmatised the channel and its journalists. In July, the Broadcasting Council suspended TVN’s license, purportedly while it examined the ownership situation.
Thousands of people took to the streets in dozens of cities across Poland, protesting what they view as more restrictions on media freedom. The fragile ruling coalition led by Law and Justice party (PiS) was put under strain when coalition party deputy minister Jarosław Gowin was fired for opposing the draft law. The problematic bill also triggered tensions between Washington and Warsaw, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issuing a statement expressing his concerns.
This is the latest in a string of attacks on media freedom in Poland during PiS’s rule. The country’s public broadcaster has been turned into a mouthpiece for the government and government officials regularly smear media outlets and journalists critical of the government and ruling party. In February this year, the government attempted to impose an advertisement tax, which would have had devastating consequences for the Polish media landscape. Following criticism, the bill was withdrawn. Poland’s declining space for media freedom bears the hallmarks of the Hungarian government’s approach to killing off independent media.
The bill now goes to the senate, parliament’s upper house, where the opposition holds a narrow majority. Senate speaker Tomasz Grodzki already tweeted that “the senate will never approve an attack on independent media”. It remains to be seen whether the senate will indeed reject this blatant attempt by the ruling party to silence critical voices and will send the law back to the lower house for review.
In case it doesn’t, the EU Commission should stand ready to trigger legal mechanisms to block a law that would seriously erode media pluralism, and to hold Poland’s government to account for stifling core European values.Source: www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/12/poland-targets-tv-channel-limits-press-freedom-and-pluralism |
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:27:45 GMT -7
EU Debates | eudebates.tv The EU strives to promote press freedom around the world, but how free are journalists to report inside the bloc? Index shows press freedom deteriorating in Europe. www.eudebates.tv/debates/spec... The annual report submitted by the "Reporters Without Borders" organization says that journalists around the world are finding it increasingly hard to investigate and report sensitive stories. And Europe is no exception. Commissioner floats plan for EU 'media freedom act' next year. #Hungary #Orban #EU #Commissioner #Poland #VETO Better EU tools are needed to protect media freedom as a "pillar of democracy" rather than just a player in the national economy, EU Commission vice-president Věra Jourová said on Monday (3 May) to mark World Press Freedom Day. Jourová said she was in discussions with commissioner Thierry Breton, responsible for the single market, to come up with a "media freedom act" next year to give the EU the means to protect press freedom across Europe. Polish diplomats in solidarity with journalists repressed in Belarus. “On World Press Freedom Day we stand in solidarity with independent media and journalists in Belarus, who have been going through unprecedented repressions. Press freedom is a fundamental value for society,” wrote the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the EU on Twitter. At the end of April, the Court of Appeals in Minsk upheld the verdict in the case of Belsat journalists Katsyaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova, both sentenced to two years in a penal colony for reporting on the dissolution of the protest in Minsk in November 2020. On February 18, the first-instance court found both journalists guilty of organising activities violating public order. According to the prosecution, the journalists "led the protest" and paralysed public transport. Human rights activists regard both journalists as political prisoners, demanding their immediate release. Other journalists have also been arrested and detained in Belarus. At the beginning of April, the media reported that several were still behind bars. www.eudebates.tv/ #eudebates |
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:32:12 GMT -7
Visegrad Insight
A video recording of the Visegrad Insight debate with MEPs: Anna Júlia Donáth, Sergey Lagodinsky, and Michal Šimečka, who discuss media freedom and the recent work of the European Parliament on that topic.
Last Wednesday, 10 March 2021, the EU executive and many lawmakers accused Poland, Hungary and Slovenia of undermining media freedoms and launching personal attacks on journalists amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Visegrad Insight discussion focuses on the question of information sovereignty and whether it belongs to the people or governments. Can the EU provide the right to information across the bloc? And how has the pandemic crises increased media vulnerability, exposing the EU to more disinformation?
The debate has been recorded on 16 March 2021 at 10 AM and it is prepared within an EU co-funded project.
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:32:53 GMT -7
DW News
2,69 mln. subscribers
Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia killed by a car bomb in Malta. Reporter Ján Kuciak shot dead in Slovakia. Veteran crime journalist Giorgos Karaivaz assassinated outside his house in Greece.
These crimes didn't occur in shaky democracies or rundown dictatorships; they happened in the European Union.
While Europe as a whole remains relatively safe, risks for journalists are mounting in many EU countries. Reporters on the streets of well-established democracies like Germany or the Netherlands risk physical attacks from members of the public, and they can be virtually under siege on social media.
Many European countries do a lot to protect journalists, and most at least pay lip service to the value of free media. But in some countries, press freedom is under blatant attack and individual reporters are being threatened, by EU governments no less. Repressive laws, commercial takeovers and financial regulations all have a broader impact than harassing individual journalists.
And yet the European Union does next to nothing. EU institutions regulate many aspects of life for the bloc's 450 million inhabitants – why can't they figure out something as important as freedom of the press? Why can't the EU get its own members to stick to shared values of media freedom? And how does this affect democracy?
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:35:53 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:38:01 GMT -7
International Journalism Festival
26,7K subscribers
The parliamentary victory of the conservative Law and Justice party in 2015 has brought a fundamental change to the media landscape in post-1989 Poland. The ruling party led by Jarosław Kaczyński went ahead through the parliament with amendments to the media bill, taking full control over the state broadcasters and promised a shift from public to “national” media. The current government’s battle for a new 'national' narrative has fuelled political and journalistic discourse in Poland and beyond. Documentary-makers, story-tellers, museum designers and journalists have been engaged in a fierce fight over the shape of old and new history of the country. The scale, depth and ambition to reshape the media system, alongside broader change in ths judiciary and the way civil society functions, have brought widespread international criticism of Poland from the liberal press and international institutions. How do journalists respond to such new challenging times? Is it possible to remain impartial and objectively report the news when the country and its journalists are so highly polarised? What are the dividing lines in national versus liberal narrative of the history in Poland today? How do journalists and film-makers contribute to the national discussion on what it truly means to be a Polish patriot in contemporary Europe?
Con: Krzysztof Dzieciolowski (founder and CEO Vision House), Jacek Karnowski (editor-in-chief Sieci), Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy (editor-in-chief Belsat TV), Matt Subieta (CANAL+), Matt Subieta
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:46:17 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:47:51 GMT -7
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Post by pieter on Aug 13, 2021 11:53:15 GMT -7
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