Polish legislators have passed a bill limiting foreign ownership of media organisations in the eastern EU member. Seeing this as an attack on press freedom and the US-owned TVN24 channel, crowds in Warsaw have gathered to protest, British news portal The Guardian reports.
Quickly rushed through the Polish parliament on Friday, December 20, the legislation would tighten rules around foreign ownership of media, specifically affecting the ability of news channel TVN24, owned by US media company Discovery Inc, to operate.
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The bill is yet to be signed into law by president Andrzej Duda. It has strained relations between Warsaw and Washington and has also fuelled wider fears about attacks on media.
«This is not just about one channel,» the Warsaw mayor and a former opposition candidate for president, Rafal Trzaskowski, said to the crowd on Sunday, December 19. «In a moment [there will be] censorship of the internet, an attempt to extinguish all independent sources of information – but we will not allow that to happen.»
Polish media ownership bill triggers protest in Warsaw, support of news channel
