Poland passes media bill

Poland’s parliament voted Wednesday in favor of a bill that would force Discovery Inc., the U.S. owner of Poland’s largest private television network, to sell its Polish holdings and is widely viewed as an attack on media independence in Poland.

The draft legislation would prevent non-European owners from having controlling stakes in Polish media companies.

In practice, it only affects TVN, which includes TVN24, an all-news station that is critical of the nationalist right-wing government and has exposed wrongdoing by Polish authorities.

Discovery said it was “extremely concerned” and appealed to the Senate and President Andrzej Duda to oppose the project.

Navalny slapped with new criminal charges

Russian authorities have levied new criminal charges against imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, part of a crackdown on the corruption fighter and his beleaguered team ahead of Russia’s upcoming parliamentary election.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said Wednesday it has charged Mr. Navalny with creating a nonprofit organization that infringes on people’s rights, a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison.

Officials alleged that Mr. Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which was launched 10 years ago and has since published dozens of widely watched videos exposing the alleged corruption of senior government officials, incited Russians “to perform unlawful actions.”

Brazil election fraud claims stir tension

President Jair Bolsonaro insisted that the outcome of next year’s elections won’t be credible after lawmakers turned down his proposal to change Brazil’s voting system, escalating political tensions 14 months ahead of the presidential vote.

A bill requiring a printout of each ballot electronically cast was shelved late Tuesday after being backed by 229 of 513 lower house representatives, short of the 308 needed to amend the constitution.

Undeterred, Mr. Bolsonaro’s allies will look to convince the senate to take up comparable legislation.