Poland’s conservative government has introduced a bill to reform the country’s public broadcasters, effectively giving the government power to appoint or dismiss their media executives.

Following the passing of the new changes in the media law, TVP1, TVP2, TVP Kultura directors have resigned from their posts. TVP’s President Janusz Daszczynski accepted their resignations.

The media law passed 232-152 with 34 abstentions in the Sejm, the lower chamber of parliament. Currently, all candidates are selected by the National Broadcasting Council. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), EBU and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released a statement on Wednesday criticizing the bill.

Yesterday, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Gunther Oettinger, who is commissioner for the digital economy and society, warned: "Many reasons exist for us to activate the 'Rule of Law mechanism' and for us to place Warsaw under monitoring."

The move would start a series of steps that, if the law remains in place, could eventually see Warsaw lose its voting rights at the European Council, the organisation that groups the leaders of all 28 EU nations.

The European Commission is due to discuss the crisis on Jan 13, after Vice President Frans Timmermans wrote to Poland's foreign and justice ministers last week urging implementation of the reforms be suspended until all questions about their impact "have been fully and properly assessed".

The Law and Justice party won parliamentary elections in October on a platform of generous welfare and what it conceives as strict public morality. President Andrzej Duda last Monday signed into law a controversial bill reforming Poland's constitutional court despite widespread domestic opposition and mounting alarm in the worldwide community. The Polish opposition said that with the new legislation the conservatives had simply seized power over the country's public media. The amendment was drafted by the PiS party. Until now, a minimum of five judges were required to vote on any particular case. Poland's economy, which emerged from the communist system in 1990, is among the fastest developing in the EU.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has written to the President of the Republic of Poland, Mr Andrzej Duda, and to Members of the Polish Senate expressing its dismay at the bill introduced yesterday (30 December) in Parliament. The controversial bill proposes new measures which would immediately oust the supervisory and management bodies of TVP and Polish Radio and transfer the power of nomination and dismissal of their Board Members to a government minister.

"To preserve the integrity and independence of public service media as a symbol of a free and democratic country, we ask you in the strongest possible terms not to sign this measure into law, and certainly not without having first undertaken a careful analysis of its compatibility with the Polish constitution and the freedom and pluralism of the media, guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights," said Ingrid Deltenre, EBU Director General, in her letter.

"The haste with which this new law has been rushed through Parliament strikes a discordant note about Poland and its respect for the rule of law and the democratic process."