WARSAW:Polish lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of a bill that the opposition says aims to silence a U.S.-owned news channel critical of the government, setting up a clash with one of Warsaw’s most important allies.
Washington has warned that a failure to renew the licence of Discovery-owned news channel TVN24 could jeopardise future investments in Poland, while opposition politicians have condemned the bill as an attack on media freedoms.
“Today’s vote… is an attack on freedom, an attack on media that is independent from the government,” Grzegorz Schetyna, a lawmaker from the largest opposition party Civic Platform, wrote on Twitter.
The bill, which would strengthen a ban on firms from outside the European Economic Area controlling Polish broadcasters, passed with 228 votes in favour, 216 against and 10 abstentions.
The bill will now go to the upper house of parliament, the Senate.
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