Poland's Right-Wing Government Scares Europe by Going After the Media
Poles took to the streets Saturday in freezing temperatures to protest a new media law that allows the government to take control of state television and radio broadcasters, which many fear is a step toward an authoritarian state. Critics say the move by the Law and Justice party in power infringes on civil liberties and threatens the young democracy that emerged from the fall of Communism on 1989.
Despite criticism from the European Union and international media watchdogs, Poland's President Andrzej Duda signed the law into effect. It comes just two weeks after Duda approved a bill legitimizing the government's appointment of its own judges to Poland's highest court, a move that provoked mass demonstrations across the Central European country. In December, President Duda ignored protests at home and alerts from the European Commissioner of Human Rights and signed a controversial law limiting, in effect, the authority of the Polish constitutional tribunal. This time, the EU warned of a violation of "European values."
The European Commission, the union's executive arm, plans a debate on the situation in Poland for next week. The Commission is worried that Poland is turning into another Hungary, a fellow EU member where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has established what he himself calls an "illiberal democracy".
But Poland going rogue within the Union is a far more serious affair. It has almost four times the population of Hungary and has grown into a major EU player, with a large, growing economy and an important voice in the confrontation with Russia since the war in eastern Ukraine began. As the EU continues to face crises that require cooperation between member states, it is wary of seeing a key player reject its ideals — especially a country long seen in the West as a model of transition to democracy from Communism.
https://news.vice.com/article/polands-right-wing-government-scares-europe-by-going-after-the-media
As with Hungary, RW governments everywhere, including in Europe, do what they want to do. It is not pretty.
