EPC slams Polish government ‘attacks’ on media outlets
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Editor
| 16 August 2021
The fallout out of the row between leading content firm Discovery and the Polish government has spread with the European Publishers Council (EPC) expressing what it says is extreme concern about what it regards as a threat to the continuity of media freedom and plurality in the country.

EPC 16 Aug 2021On 13 August Discovery revealed that it was to take legal action against the Polish government following its refusal to renew the licence of its subsidiary broadcasting group TVN.

The channel said the move was a consequence of a “discriminatory” campaign against TVN, including the Polish government’s refusal to renew TVN24’s broadcasting licence which culminated in the vote on 11 August in the lower house of the Polish Parliament to pass legislation that would ban upstream foreign media ownership in the country. Discovery said such legislation was the latest in an “assault” on independent media and freedom of the press and took direct aim at broadcasting group and news provider TVN. Discovery added that the Polish government had targeted TVN in an “arbitrary and discriminatory” manner for a number of years, as part of a broader crackdown on independent media and in direct violation of legal protections around freedom of expression.

The EPC is a high-level group of chief executives and senior management at Europe’s leading media groups and has been working with Europe’s legislators since 1991 on issues that affect the health and viability of journalistically-driven media and publishing companies in the European Union, aiming to uphold the freedom of expression, media diversity, and democratic debate.

Reacting to the current situation in Poland, the EPC stated that it condemned any party-politically motivated attempts to intimidate the media and media professionals. It added that repeated attacks of this kind were diametrically opposed to the liberal principles and values of our European Union. It also highlighted the fact that in the international ranking on press freedom by Reporters Without Borders, Poland plummeted 44 places in just five years, from 18th place at the time to 62nd place in the meantime.

“The way in which a hastily fabricated change in media laws, this time aimed at a specific TV channel, was ruthlessly pushed through in a special parliamentary session with controversial voting procedures and the narrowest of majorities, is nourishing the worst fears worldwide,” said EPC chairman Christian Van Thillo. “This is yet another example of multi-pronged attacks on independent media outlets in Poland. The free competition of thoughts and opinions is one of the prerequisites of reliable democracies. Thus, in this serious hour, Poland's democratic institutions are called upon to take into account the pluralistic ethos of our common European cohesion.”