Szymon Pogoda (36), from Law and Justice, signed the bill amending the Broadcasting Act. The bill provides for broadcasting licenses to be granted only to entities whose owner lives or has its registered office in the European Economic Area. Such a provision targets TVN, whose owners are American. Once the bill enters into force, they would have to sell their shares.
The bill has been widely discussed for a week. It was submitted by MP Marek Suski, surprising many Law and Justice MPs—reportedly even Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister Piotr Gliński.
“The future of the amendment looks bleak,” MP Marek Suski said yesterday on TV Republika. “It is sad that even our coalition partners are saying they will not support this solution. It is difficult for me to understand what they are getting at, because they are behaving as if they were already in the opposition rather than in the coalition. The bill has no chance because everyone else wants to shine on TVN and wants to be invited there,” Suski said.
Szymon Pogoda did not boast about the bill restricting media freedom and targeting TVN. His Facebook page contains no mention of it.
This is not Szymon Pogoda’s first controversial action. We recently wrote that when he headed the Bolesławiec branch of ARiMR and the country was in the midst of the pandemic, awards were handed out at his office. Six months ago, the MP also became known for voting in which some medical professionals lost their financial allowances.
Let us also recall that, alongside Wiesław Ogrodnik and Jan Russ, MP Pogoda was mentioned in 2017 by Puls Biznesu on the list “Now, Damn It, Us.” The business daily then published a list of United Right activists who had taken positions in companies owned by the State Treasury. Among them were three Bolesławiec members of Law and Justice, including Szymon Pogoda.