New law in Poland expands government access to digital data

The European Union is reviewing whether a newly passed Polish law that would give the government wide-spread control over data and media has violated EU standards.

Critics say the law, which Polish President Andrzej Duda approved Thursday and went into effect on Saturday, raises privacy and civil rights concerns.

The new law expands government access to digital data and allows for greater surveillance by police, reported the BBC.

It’s part of counterterrorism reforms instituted by the conservative Law and Justice Party, which swept into power in October 2015. The Law and Justice Party won a majority in the lower house — meaning it had enough votes to govern alone — the first time a single party has done so since the restoration of democracy in 1989.

Other reforms the Law and Justice Party made in recent months include giving the government power to dismiss and appoint members of the public media and the civil service. Another law increased the number of judges required to review and rule on a constitutional court case from a simple majority to a two-thirds majority.

The measures have spurred protests: “You’re supposed to listen, not listen in” and “Watch out, the little brother is watching you,” read some protest banners.

“Civic [nongovernmental group] movements, human rights organizations, Amnesty International protested very strongly against it,” said Irena Grudzinska-Gross, professor of Slavic Languages at Princeton University. They say this law “is really threatening human rights and various other freedoms that have been guaranteed by the constitution.”

But the Polish government denies it has violated any democratic norms and says the measures are needed to combat the growing threat of terrorism.

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo defended the law at a recent debate at the European Parliament, saying it “reflect(s) EU standards and (is) in no way differ from standards in other EU states.”

Duda spokesman Marek Magierowski said the changes were necessary, because for eight years under the previous pro-EU government, state-run broadcasters were “deeply one-party media” with “not a penny’s worth of pluralism,” reported the Associated Press.

Other European countries are considering and passing legislation in the name of fighting terrorism. Hungary, for example, has introduced a bill that would amend the constitution to include a state of emergency labelled “terror threat situation” in response to “terrorist attack” or “significant terror menaces.” The state of emergency would last for up to 60 days during which the government could suspend and modify certain laws, which has worried some groups.

“These two countries — they are already part of a movement both in Eastern and Western Europe which people are calling ‘illiberal democracy’, that these governments are democratically elected but they really introduce changes that make them more undemocratic (with more) control over the country,” said Grudzinska-Gross.

Last month, the European Union launched an assessment into whether the Polish laws violate the EU’s fundamental values of democracy. Polish officials said in response that the European Commission is trying to exert pressure on the “democratically elected” government.

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