President Aleksander Kwaśniewski's top cabinet official last week told the Sejm he would not sign a law restricting cross-ownership in media, confirming his opposition to legislation supported by Prime Minister Leszek Miller.
But Dariusz Szymczycha, one of Kwaśniewski's top cabinet officials, stopped short of calling for a veto and leftist MPs tried to play down any split between the Democratic Left Alliance's (SLD) two leading politicians.
The proposed legislation has been strongly criticized by private media companies, which fear that the new regulations would impede their development and seriously strengthen public media at their expense.
"The president has a clear opinion (on the draft) and he will be firm," Szymczycha told deputies from the Sejm's media and culture committee, who debated the draft bill last week.
The National Radio and Television Council (KRRiTV), the national media watchdog, submitted the original law; the government made significant modifications and then submitted it to the Sejm. The legislation originally said a company already holding a TV or radio broadcasting license that covers more than 80% of the population will not be able to acquire another TV or radio station with a national audience. Government changes to the legislation ensure that the same rules apply to national daily newspapers and magazines - they won't be able to acquire TV or radio networks covering the entire country. Companies like Agora, publisher of leading daily Gazeta Wyborcza, immediately considered themselves targets of the law.
Last week, Szymczycha said the president is critical of three sets of regulations proposed in the draft bill.
"Regulations meant to prevent ownership concentration on the media market are not compatible with the present stage of (media) market development so I call deputies to take that into account," Szymczycha said.
Kwaśniewski does not support ownership concentration in the media but he cannot agree to such radical solutions proposed by the government, Szymczycha said.
Szymczycha also criticized regulations that would strengthen the KRRiTV's powers and allow the watchdog's members to be elected for a second time, effectively extending their terms to 12 years.
Broadcasting agreement
Jerzy Wenderlich, an SLD deputy, told the WBJ there is little discrepancy between the government and the president in the way they think about ownership concentration in media. "I wasn't surprised with Szymczycha's statement because if he says we do need some regulations it sounds similar to what we're postulating," he said.
Jarosław Sellin, one of four KRRiTV members who voted against preventing multi-sector ownership, welcomed Szymczycha's statement.
"He was very firm and made it clear that the president wouldn't sign the bill even if the Sejm leaves only one of the criticized regulations," he said.
Sellin was critical, though, of the president's approval of public media expansion. Public broadcasters are already in a privileged position, with revenue from both subscription fees and ads.
Public property
Critics of public media accuse the left in Poland of politically controlling Telewizja Polska (TVP) and Polskie Radio (PR) due to their dominance in the media management and supervisory boards and in the KRRiTV.
Under the draft bill, TVP, the state broadcaster, will have the freedom to participate in the commercial market by establishing new channels and it would become the owner of public TV archives created before 1994.
"It's unfair because those archives are everyone's property and should be made accessible to all broadcasters," Sellin said. "By granting them to TVP, the government will strengthen the station's position on the market."
