The Lower House of Parliament (Sejm) has appointed two left-wing candidates for the National Broadcasting Council, the most powerful media institution in Poland.

As many as 256 MPs supported Witold Grabos and 243 Slawomir Rogowski, both recommended by the Democratic Left Alliance. The other candidates, Jaroslaw Sellin and Maciej Ilowiecki, recommended by the opposition Law and Justice party gained slightly over a hundred votes.

The National Broadcasting Council  - which can decide the composition of governing boards of both public TV and radio in Poland - will now consists of five members: Jan Dworak and Krzysztof Luft (associated with the ruling Civic Platform) chosen by president-elect Bronislaw Komorowski, Stefan Pastuszka (Polish Peasants Party) recommended by the Senate and Witold Grabos and Slawomir Rogowski (Democratic Left Alliance) chosen by the Sejm, the lower house. Consequently, the opposition Law and Justice will not have any representatives on the council at all.

New members of the National Broadcasting Council had to be chosen after both Houses of the Parliament and president rejected a report on its activity, resulted in dissolution of the council.

Today, the lower house, after an alliance of the ruling Civic Platform party and opposition Democratic Left Alliance, also passed an amendment to the media law, which dissolves managing boards of the state broadcasters TVP and Polish Radio and reduces the number of their members.

According to the new media law, members of TVP and Polish Radio managing boards will be chosen by the National Broadcasting Council in an open contest (not secretly as before) and only one treasury minister will have the right to appoint its representative to the boards (earlier Finance and Culture Ministers also enjoyed this right).

As many as 254 MPs supported the amendment and 138 voted against.

Poland’s media ownership and financing have a dual structure, as in much of Europe, with a private sector funded primarily by advertising but with the bulk of revenue for public TV and radio  coming from the license fee. The present government has attempted to abolish the license fee – which it says is an uncollectable tax – and fund public media directly from taxes – a move fiercely resisted by opposition parties.