Poland

“In Hungary, Poland and Turkey, increasing control of ruling parties over state-controlled companies, advertising agencies, media regulators, competition watchdogs and even the courts, has allowed for a steady intensification and diversification of campaigns against critical press.”

The Bodnar case is yet another example of Poland’s assault on the rule of law. Since 2015, the government has politicised judicial appointments, refused to implement judgements and severely undermined the Constitutional Tribunal’s independence and effectiveness.

“The EU has sat on the sidelines for too long. Repeated inaction to stop the undermining of media freedom and pluralism first in Hungary, and then in Poland, has allowed this model of media capture to grow and spread to other Member States. The cost of further inaction is simply too high.”

Report by Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) members finds that “Poland is now taking worrying steps down the path established by Hungary, whose government has in the last decade created and then exported a system of media capture unprecedented in the EU”.

For over a month, hundreds of thousands of people have protested across the country against the decision of the Constitutional Court to ban abortions in cases of foetal abnormality. Police have responded with excessive use of force and arbitrary detentions.

Women, adolescents, and LGBTQI+ people are bearing the brunt of the ruling Law and Justice party’s moves to undermine sexual and reproductive health rights and demonise gender-nonconformity.

“The government’s systematic abuse of public TV shows that press freedom should be included in the procedure under Article 7 of the Treaty on the European Union, which is discussed by the EU Council and could lead to sanctions against Poland for violation of European values.”

In his contribution to IFEX’s series marking International Women’s Day, Regional Editor Cathal Sheerin looks at how, under the ruling Law and Justice Party, Polish women are facing greater restrictions on both reproductive health care and access to accurate information about their legal options.

Police protected Pride marchers in Lublin from attacks by anti-LGBTQI+ protesters; but Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party fosters homophobia and has made countering “LGBT ideology” part of its platform for the October 13 elections.

Human rights activist Elżbieta Podlesna was held for several hours on suspicion of offending religious beliefs after she displayed a poster of the Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo.

A new report finds politics, refugees, Polish-Jewish history and gender are the issues most likely to attract online threats and hate speech in Poland.

(RSF) welcomes the European Commission decision to trigger Article 7 of the European Union treaty against Poland, but regrets that the decision only addresses Poland’s moves against judicial independence and ignores its repeated attacks on the media.

In October, police in several Polish cities raided the offices of two nongovernmental organizations that support domestic violence victims and promote women’s rights. The official rationale for the raids was a search for evidence linked to alleged wrongdoing by the previous government’s Ministry of Justice. But the timing was suspicious.

Poland has largely ignored criticism from the European Union and the Council of Europe and instead moved ahead with efforts to eliminate checks on its authority, weaken human rights protection, and shrink the space for dissenting voices.

The Polish government’s plans to reform the country’s Supreme Court, which have sparked protests over a perceived erosion of the separation of powers and the rule of law, also have significant potential consequences for media freedom, Polish journalists and media experts say.

An investigative reporter for the independent newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Tomasz Piatek is facing a possible two to three-year jail sentence in a case that is being prepared by military prosecutors and could be heard by a military court.