As announced, the Veto Lex TVN protest began at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 19, in Bolesławiec market square. Attendance was high. Despite the cold and drizzle, more than 200 people came to the market square. Those gathered listened to brief, critical speeches about the rule of the United Right in Poland.
Watch a summary of the speeches:
After the speeches, those gathered sang the national anthem and walked several times around Bolesławiec town hall. Similar protests are taking place in several dozen locations across Poland, in smaller and larger cities.
The national anthem and march around Bolesławiec town hall:
Photo gallery from the event:
On Friday, December 17, the Sejm adopted the law known as lex TVN and rejected the Senate’s veto. A total of 452 deputies took part in the vote: 229 voted in favor, 212 against, and 11 abstained. Rejecting the Senate’s veto means that lex TVN will now go to President Andrzej Duda.
Bolesławiecki Strajk Kobiet also publishes on its Facebook profile an open letter from the Grand Press Foundation and the Committee for the Defence of Democracy to the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda:
We, the women and men of Bolesławiec, together with all of Poland, appeal to the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, to veto the law known as lex TVN, dated August 11, 2021, and adopted in a Sejm vote on December 17, 2021.
The law amending the Broadcasting Act (Sejm print no. 1389) violates not only Article 54 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, but also international treaties. It was processed in violation of the Rules of Procedure of the Sejm, following an illegal repeat vote ordered by Marshal Elżbieta Witek and during a meeting of the Committee on Culture and Mass Media convened at a time not permitted by the rules.
Its aim is to force the American corporation Discovery to sell its TVN shares and withdraw from investment in the Polish media market.
To put it plainly: this is the most serious case of an attack on freedom of speech in Poland since 1989. The ruling party and its acolytes want to shut down independent media because they realize that their most dangerous opponent is the truth.
A similar event marked the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s rule in Russia. NTV, a television station critical of the authorities, including over corruption, was taken over by the state-owned Gazprom corporation in 2001.
We do not agree to Poland going down the same path as Russia and Hungary.
We demand freedom, including economic freedom, for media independent of those in power.
That is why we loudly appeal to the President to veto the law!!!