President Lech Kaczynski has vetoed the government’s media bill, which attempted a radical change in the way that public TV and radio is funded in Poland. The bill - which had been voted for in both the Sejm and Senate - would have abolished the licence fee from the beginning of 2010, replacing it with grants from direct taxation, at levels decided annually by parliament.
Chief of the Presidential Chancellery, Piotr Kownacki described the bill, Friday evening, as a “dangerous experiment with public media.” Earlier President Kaczynski warned that, "the current bill will only give public media serious problems, if not total liquidation."
The campaign against the media bill has been led by opposition MPs from both Law and Justice and Democratic Left Alliance and artists such as film director Agnieszka Holland. It has also been criticised by organisations outside Poland such as the OSCE, which described it as a “politicisation of public media.”
The government argues that the licence fee, paid by only 40 percent of households, is an uncollectible tax.
The future of the bill is now back in the hands of the lower house of parliament, where the government will have trouble gaining the two-thirds majority needed to overturn President Kaczynski‘s veto.
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