Poland: The EU's media freedom conundrum

We examine what Poland's new contentious media law means for journalism; plus, covering Pakistan's northwest.



Since Poland's right-wing Law and Justice party won the country's parliamentary elections in October, the media landscape has been undergoing a series of transformations.

The party led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski is anti-Russian, distrustful of Germany and suspicious of immigrants. And with its strong emphasis on what it calls traditional Polish values, the government clearly wants domestic media organisations to get behind its nationalist message.

It has made significant changes to the public broadcaster in Poland, passing a media law that gives the government the power to directly appoint the heads of TVP - Poland's public broadcaster - and other state-owned media outlets.

That legislation has raised concerns in Brussels, where European Union officials have threatened to throw the book at Poland for what they see as a blow for pluralism and press freedom.