Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda has vetoed a media bill that critics say is intended to silence a Discovery-owned news programme that is critical of the government, citing concerns about the law’s impact on relations with the United States.
The action helps NATO member Poland to avoid a potentially dramatic confrontation with the US at a time when tensions in eastern Europe are rising as a result of what some countries perceive to be increased Russian assertiveness.
However, the decision implies that a scheme supported by the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) in parliament has been thwarted by a president who was elected as an ally of the PiS.
President Andrzej Duda said in a televised broadcast on Monday that enacting the law would be a violation of a treaty on economic and trade relations made with the United States.
The US had pushed Duda to exercise his veto. Bix Aliu, the US charge d’affaires in Warsaw, congratulated him on Twitter for his ‘for leadership and commitment to common democratic values and for protecting the investment climate in Poland.’
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