EU commissioner warns Poland on new media law

He was reacting in particular to EU Commissioner Guenther Oettinger's call for Poland to be put under a monitoring mechanism, due to recent changes in the media law that give the government control of state broadcasters.

"There is a lot to be said for activating the mechanism on the rule of law and putting Warsaw under supervision", Oettinger was quoted by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as saying.

The EU has said that a controversial new Polish media law, whose introduction led to the protest resignation of top TVP directors over the weekend, could trigger action under its "rule of law" mechanism.

The move would start a series of steps that, if the law remains in place, could eventually see Warsaw lose its voting rights at the European Council, the organisation that groups the leaders of all 28 EU nations. At that time, he added, "not a single European Union commissioner or European Union lawmaker expressed any concern over the fact".

During the initial phase, the Commission will collect information and assess whether there are clear indications of a systemic threat to the rule of law.

The Eurosceptic PiS, which ousted the governing centrist party in October's election, has rejected criticism that its policies are undermining democracy.

In 2014, Poland's then foreign minister Rodislaw Sikorski said he wanted the alliance to station two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation heavy brigades - typically between 3,000 and 5,000 troops - on Polish soil in response to Russia's intervention in Ukraine, where Moscow denies it is actively assisting pro-Russian rebels.

The Polish president's spokesman told private broadcaster TVN24: "In the last eight years we had no pluralism in the public media at all and no European Commissioner, no member of the European Parliament, deplored it".

Under the new law, senior figures in public radio and television will in future be appointed - and sacked - by the treasury minister, and no longer through contests by the National Broadcasting Council.

But Reporters Without Borders (ESF), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) are among those monitors who have voiced deep concern.

The court, known as the Constitutional Tribunal, needs a two-thirds majority to issue a ruling, rather than by a simple majority as before, and 13 of its 15 judges must be present for the most contentious cases, up from nine.

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