Item — HN Reader

Why Poland though? There was no hostile takeovers of press here. The only beef we have with EU is about judicial reforms which are much needed, but really hard to get it right.

After the unification Germany was able to do a clean cut judicial reform of East Germany. Poland did not.

1 comments

The polish government does influence media; recent major event:

>"Polish hit song on grieving 'censored', sparking protests"

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52721152

That state funded radio station has 4,7% of the market share. Thanks to that censor action the song became very popular in other stations and YT.

And how is an example of government influence? Giving and order to censor would hurt them. This was most likely a PR stunt, stab at the ruling party or incompetent management.

> Giving and order to censor would hurt them.

That’s not certain. I don’t think anyone would have predicted the events that followed.

> This was most likely a PR stunt

The context and behavior of people close to the matter suggest that this wasn’t a PR stunt. There were leavings, layoffs and statements from multiple sides. As far as I’m aware even the government didn’t imply that this was a PR stunt.

Gov said it's either incompetence or a provocation. I'd bet my money that was a PR stunt by people working for the radio. They were in conflict with the government for years. They wanted out. It's a good way to create buzz and establish a new crowd-founded radio - which they did https://patronite.pl/radionowyswiat