Prague, Jan 11 (CTK) – The new law on the public media introduced by the new Polish government reprieves the mistakes of the previous legislation, Witold Waszczykowski said after meeting his Czech counterpart Lubomir Zaoralek yesterday, dismissing its criticism by the EU.
The legislation will ensure open media with space for all political currents, Waszczykowski said.
The European Commission is scheduled to deal with the tense political atmosphere in Poland on Wednesday.
Zaoralek said he believed the freedom of speech would be preserved in Poland.
He said he was not afraid that the political opposition would not have the space to express its views.
“We are only reprieving the media system that was bad in Poland in the past years,” Waszczykowski said.
“There must be open media in which information is separated from political writing and debates include the whole political spectrum,” he added.
According to a statement by the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), the new law interferes in the operation and independence of the media.
On Saturday, rallies against the legislation were held in many Polish towns. The protesters said the new Polish conservative government wanted to dominate and command the media.
Waszczykowski said it would be easy to explain the changes to the European Commission because all the reproaches were false.
He said earlier the EC should rather deal with the situation in Germany after the New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne.
After the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) came to power last autumn and started implementing its programme, it came under criticism by some European politicians.
