US ambassador criticises Polish regulator for not renewing licence of US-owned TV channel
Notes from Poland | 24 May 2024
The American ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, has criticised the country’s broadcasting regulator, the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT), for failing to renew the licence of a channel that is part of the US-owned TVN network, which is Poland’s largest private broadcaster.
He says that the KRRiT’s actions risk undermining the confidence of foreign investors as well as the “common values and interests” of Poland and the United States” and the rule of law.
The episode is part of a long-running dispute over TVN, which Poland’s former ruling Law and Justice (PiS) has long been critical of. The head of the KRRiT is a PiS appointee.
Brzezinski’s intervention came in response to an announcement by the KRRiT that it would not yet renew the licence of TVN Style – which has operated since 2004 – due to concerns that doing so “could involve violating Polish and European law”.
It pointed out that, under Poland’s Broadcasting Act, a licence cannot be granted to media that are more than 49% owned by entities from outside the European Economic Area.
The KRRiT noted that TVN is 100% controlled by an entity from outside the EEA. In 2015, TVN was bought by Scripps Networks Interactive, which was itself in turn taken over in 2018 by Discovery, Inc.
The regulator therefore announced that it would carry out further “analysis of the company’s capital structure” before deciding whether to renew the licence of TVN Style, which is currently set to expire on 28 July this year.
The KRRiT is led by Maciej Świrski, who was appointed under the former PiS government. PiS has long criticised TVN for what it says is unfairly negative coverage of the party. In 2021, PiS approved a law that would have forced TVN’s owners to sell the station but it was vetoed by President Andrzej Duda.
In 2021, the KRRiT delayed until the last minute a decision to renew the licence of TVN’s 24-hour news channel. A court later found that those delays had constituted a “gross violation of law”.
Earlier this year, the regulator fined TVN for a “lack of objectivity and journalistic integrity” in a documentary about purported neglect by Polish Pope John Paul II in dealing with child sex abuse in the Catholic church.
In response to news that the regulator was not renewing TVN Style’s licence, Brzezinski – who has defended TVN from action by the KRRiT in the past – strongly criticised the decision.
“Anything that undermines faith in the predictability of the investment climate in Poland, such as yesterday’s statement by the National Broadcasting Council questioning the legitimacy of an American company operating in Poland, undermines our common values, bilateral interests and the rule of law,” wrote Brzezinski.
TVN itself also issued a statement in which it called the KRRiT’s actions an “unlawful attack on an American investor”. It said that the legality of the station’s ownership has been “confirmed by court judgments, numerous legal opinions and decisions by the KRRiT granting licenses to our group’s channels”.
Świrski also announced this week that he is considering filing a case against the former head of the KRRiT, Jan Dworak, for failing to take action when TVN was purchased by American owners in 2015. This was a “serious violation of the media law”, said Świrski.
“I am [therefore] considering whether to submit a request to [parliament] to bring Jan Dworak before the State Tribunal,” he added, referring to the constitutional body that is charged with holding state officials to account for crimes.
The current ruling coalition, which replaced PiS in power at the end of 2023, is itself seeking to bring Świrski before the State Tribunal. They accuse him of partial and politically motivated decisions against private media he perceived as hostile to PiS and of withholding money from public media after the new government took office.
