Italian Member of the European Parliament Silvia Costa has urged her colleagues to adopt a Resolution on the recent reform of the media law announced by the Polish government.

As Chair of the European Parliament Culture and Education Committee (CULT), Silvia Costa wants to initiate an investigation on the effective violation of media pluralism in Poland. She believes the situation in Poland for freedom of the press is ‘very serious’ and may warrant an intervention by the European Commission on the grounds of Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Values.

"The abolition of the procedure delegating to the Media independent authority the power to appoint top managers of Polish public TV and radio is a very serious fact”, she says.

The new Polish media law and the potential threat for European fundamental freedoms will be addressed during next week’s plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Meanwhile Czech Television has joined the EBU's call opposing the adoption of new media laws in Poland and warned of the dangers posed to a democratic society of placing the control of public service media directly in government hands.

“The situation in which public media in Poland now finds itself is extremely disconcerting. It’s a move towards a government takeover where public media will disappear, and with it the ability of Poles to access any independent information. On the contrary, commercial media will never be able to guarantee independence from economic or political influences,” said Managing Director of Czech Television and EBU Executive Board Member Petr Dvořák.

Also, the heads of Sweden’s three EBU members have jointly signed a letter opposing new amendments to Poland’s broadcast law.

In the letter, published by Dagens Nyheter and the EBU, EBU executive board member Cilla Benkö (SR), Hanna Stjärne (SVT) and Christel Tholse Willers (UR) urge Swedish politicians to take action against the Polish government, who they accuse of dismantling media freedom in Europe.

They also say they believe the Polish government should immediately see reason and reverse the decisions; the Swedish government should make the freedom of the press one of its top priorities; media politics should continue to be governed nationally; and Swedish political parties should take Poland as a warning example.

EBU has also warned that it may exclude TVP from its members list.