Kaczyński targets critical TV network

Although the Polish government coalition collapsed over the issue, the majority of the Sejm deputies passed a controversial media law on Wednesday. It is widely seen as aiming to revoke the licence of the anti-government broadcasting network TVN. Commentators discuss the tense relations between Poland and the US and the increasingly frequent comparisons with the style of government in Hungary.

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Népszava (HU) /

Poland is risking a lot

Kaczyński is risking too much simply to maintain his grip on power, Népszava states:

“By attacking the American-owned TVN24 and freedom of the press in general, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, now 72, is putting the security provided by Nato and EU membership at risk, just to keep his corrupt, nationalist and populist regime, which increasingly resembles the Hungarian one, going for another election cycle. There are already rumours in the Polish opposition press that the deteriorating relationship has led the US to consider transferring some of its troops (which are stationed there at Poland's request) to the more reliable Romania. ”

Financial Times (GB) /

Independent voices quashed

The Financial Times takes a concerned look at dwindling media freedom in Poland:

“Poland's public broadcasters have been reduced by PiS to crude propagandists for the government. A state-owned oil company has been used to buy up various local media companies. ... Poland's media watchdog is also dragging its feet on an 18-month-old application to renew the broadcasting licence of TVN's main news channel, TVN24. This matters. A takeover of TVN by pro-government owners would leave only the smaller Polsat as an independent source of national TV news, skewing the media environment ahead of a general election due in 2023.”

Der Tagesspiegel (DE) /

PiS would have a hard time winning against EU-US alliance

The EU and the US should react jointly and in a coordinated manner, recommends Der Tagesspiegel:

“A European-based media group could take over in trust the necessary number of Discovery shares to satisfy the letter of the new media law for licence renewal. ... And Germany, Europe and the US should get actively involved in the election campaign by making it clear that they cannot cooperate with political forces that aim to restrict media diversity and silence free media with arbitrary laws, and that they therefore warn the people against electing such forces. ... It will be difficult for the PiS to find a majority among Poland's voters against a well-founded alliance between Europe and the US.”

Delo (SI) /

Orbán is far more cunning

Delo compares the PiS's approach with that of the Hungarian prime minister and concludes:

“Orbán would never open up two fronts at the same time, as Kaczyński's party has done. ... Hungary's head of government is far more cunning. While Washington is being added to Poland's list of undesirables, which since recently includes Moscow as well as Brussels, Budapest is increasing its influence in the region while simultaneously forging pragmatic alliances with Moscow and Beijing.”

Hospodářské noviny (CZ) /

The PiS has some explaining to do

The controversy over press freedom is not an internal Polish issue, Hospodářské noviny stresses:

“TVN's main shareholder is Discovery. Both Democratic and Republican senators warned in a joint resolution that any application of the law to TVN, the US's largest investment in Poland, will have a negative impact on defence and trade relations. The government in Warsaw has done nothing to address the fact that the country has dropped from 18th to 64th place in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index in recent years. But it won't be able to avoid having to explain to the Poles why it wants to upset its ally in Washington.”

Aktuality.sk (SK) /

Blind obsession

The PiS is pulling out all stops to ensure it receives nothing but adulation in the media, observes Aktuality.sk:

“Its primary concern is to silence an independent TV station. The fact that Jarosław Kaczyński's party is even putting relations with the US and the stability of its own government at risk for this purpose proves how far the PiS is willing to go to get rid of its critics in the media.”

Gazeta Wyborcza (PL) /

Making the Poles swallow all the lies

Gazeta Wyborcza takes the government to task:

“The prime minister, a notorious liar, has fully exposed himself this time: this is not about regulating the market and protecting Polish media from a hostile takeover by the Russians or the Chinese. It's about silencing government critics or turning media into a variant of state television, firmly loyal to the government. So that the uneducated masses swallow all the stories the PiS - under its leader Kaczyński - comes up with.”

Handelsblatt (DE) /

Put an end to the nightmare

The fact that the PiS was even prepared to risk the coalition's collapse in order to push through the law means the following for Handelsblatt:

“Polish democracy is by no means dead. The PiS's march against Europe's values is now also being opposed by its former partners. But the PiS remains fiercely determined to reconstruct Poland according to its ultra-Catholic and backward ideas. And the party is ready to continue on its collision course with Europe and its values. ... And this in Poland of all places, which fought more fiercely than others for freedom when it was behind the Iron Curtain. Hopefully, Poland's voters will remember this fight for freedom and put an end to this nightmare.”