The legislation, which strengthens a ban on companies from outside the European Economic Area controlling Polish broadcasters, passed with 228 votes in favour, 216 against and 10 abstentions in the lower house of Poland's parliament late on Wednesday.
It will now go to the upper house, the Senate, for further debate.
During an emotional session of parliament, opposition MPs decried the bill as an attack on media freedoms and an attempt to gag TVN24, a US-owned news channel critical of the government.
Critics have also warned that the controversial new regulations could harm US investment in Poland and sour Warsaw's relations with Washington.
A protest in support of US-owned private broadcaster TVN in the southern Polish city of Kraków on Tuesday. Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski
A group of prominent US senators this month warned the Polish government against pursuing legislation that they say would infringe on a free, independent media and jeopardize US media investment in Poland.
On Tuesday, thousands of people protested across Poland in defence of media freedoms, objecting to the draft legislation.
A protest in defence of media freedoms in the southern Polish city of Kraków on Tuesday. Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said last month that the bill aiming to tighten foreign ownership rules for media firms was a “perfectly normal” legislative move.
Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin has said the proposed new media rules are designed to provide “tools to protect the media market from an aggressive takeover by Russian or Chinese capital."
He told reporters last month that the "mass media should not become a mouthpiece for spreading views that may threaten Poland's security.”
Poland’s governing conservatives have long argued that foreign entities own too much of the country’s mass media and distort the public debate.
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Source: PAP, Reuters
