In Poland, Warner Bros. Discovery Fears For Its Future
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) insiders in Poland have reacted with alarm after a group of European regulators said they plan to meet to discuss what the insiders believe could lead to the closure of the U.S.
media giant’s operation in the nation. The National Broadcasting Council of Poland (KRRiT) yesterday said it intends to organize a gathering of nine audovisiual market regulators from Central and Eastern Europe in Warsaw in September in a bid to “jointly counter Russian propaganda within the European Union.” WBD insiders interpret the move as an attempt to potentially shut down its legacy Polish operation, which includes news network TVN24.
They point to frequent attacks by the Polish government – the KRRiT overseer – that conflates its anti-government reporting with being pro-Russian.
Last month, a TVN24 journalist was called a “Kremlin representative” by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the ruling Law and Justice Party, a move that was slammed by the Reporters Without Borders organization, while KRRIT Chairman Maciej Świrski recently tweeted saying he had refused an invitation to appear on TVN, adding: “I believe that appearances on TVN give more credibility to their manipulations.” TVN broadcasts a range of popular channels in Poland and the main channel carries an evening news program, Fakty (Facts), which regularly criticizes the government.
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