Polish authorities are tightening censorship in the country
In Poland, the blacklist is being replenished with new online publications blocked on behalf of the intelligence services. The latest scandal of this kind was when providers cut off access to the Internet television website wRealu24. Previously, the websites of the weekly Mysl Polska, the independent news portal Wolnemedia and many other resources were blocked using the same scheme.
The legal basis for these decisions is unknown. The Polish Telecommunications Law provides in Art. 180 the possibility of shutting down by the relevant authorities resources “threatening the defense capability and state security” of the country. The law was adopted back in 2004, but no one had used it before.
Additionally, in 2016, the ruling Law and Justice party adopted an anti-terrorism law. It provides for the possibility of blocking sites by an out-of-court decision of the Internal Security Agency. This decision is made after approval by the Prosecutor General, and after 30 days it is approved at a closed meeting of the Warsaw District Court.
It is curious that no one even notifies publishers and owners of closed websites about the court hearing. It turns out that they formally do not even have information about the reasons and circumstances of the blocking.
There is also no official list of blocked sites. Providers fundamentally do not answer questions from readers and publishers at all, or answer that the site is blocked for unknown reasons beyond their control. The intelligence services do not explain the reasons for inclusion in the blacklist, using only general phrases about “the fight against disinformation.” There is no legal possibility of appealing the decision.
After the portal wRealu24 and MyslPolska were included in the list of blocked sites, deputies of the Polish parliament had questions for the leadership of the intelligence services, which, however, remained unanswered.
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