In Poland, hundreds rally against new media law

Thousands of Poles gathered on Saturday in major Polish cities: Warsaw, Lodz, Poznan, and Szczecin, to protest against a new law on state-run media. Under the new law, approved on Thursday by the president, the treasury minister has the right to appoint heads of state-run broadcasters. The heads of state media were until now appointed through public contest organised by the National Broadcasting Council, a constitutional body set up to protect the freedom of speech. Poland dismissed European Commission concern on Friday that a new law on state-run media threatened media freedom, warning Brussels not to interfere in its affairs on the basis of "biased and politically-engaged" reports. LEADER, COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENCE OF DEMOCRACY, MATEUSZ KIJOWSKI .... "We are meeting because media freedom is in danger and so is democracy. Media are an important safety tool. If media can't monitor those in power, public opinion will not know what they are doing. So we came here to show how important for us free media are." 

The European Union's executive has written to Poland asking how the new law tallies with EU rules on media freedoms. Replying to the letter The foreign ministry said Poland fully recognised media freedom and the Commission may have been provided with misleading information with a bias against the Polish government. The Commission is to discuss the issue in Brussels on Jan. 13.