MPs voted by 257 votes for to 162 against to adopt the new law. The opposition Law and Justice party is against the new legislation, which, they claim, is an attempt to subordinate public media to the ruling coalition of Civic Platform and Polish Peasant Party. The left wing Democratic Left Alliance voted for the bill.

The government has argued that the licence fee is impossible to collect and point to the fact that only 40 percent of private households pay the fee at present. Close to 200 million euros would be raised from the new legislation annually.

The bill seeks to make around 20 million euros available to broadcasters in both the public and private sector to be distributed via a series of tenders for public mission broadcasting.

The bill expands the number of members of the National Broadcasting Council from five to seven. Sixteen regional media branches are to be set up based on the existing regional TV centres.

The bill still has to pass through the upper house, the Senate and then will have to be signed by President Lech Kaczynski, who is sympathetic to the Law and Justice party’s line on the issue and may veto the legislation.

The bill must also be in accordance with European Commission regulations on funding public media. (ab/mmj)