Song critical of Polish leader disappears from hit chart
Vanessa Gera, Associated Press
Updated 6:14 am CDT, Tuesday, May 19, 2020
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A song took aim at an alleged abuse of power by Poland's ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. It rose to the top of the chart of a public radio station. Then it disappeared.
The public broadcaster is now accused of censorship. The scandal, which has been a top issue of public debate in recent days, has prompted several resignations from the station, Radio Trojka, and left some musicians vowing to boycott it.
The affair has created new worries about media freedom in Poland. Since Kaczynski’s party won power in 2015, it has used public media as a propaganda tool in violation of its mandate to be neutral. In the past five years, Poland has fallen in the World Press Freedom Index from 18th to 62nd place.
Kaczynski isn't himself accused of ordering the removal of the song from a listener-voted chart, and members of the government have also been critical of what happened. Instead, the song's removal is seen as the kind of self-censorship that happens by overzealous underlings in a system where democratic standards are under threat.
More:
https://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Song-critical-of-Polish-leader-disappears-from-15279978.php
Poland's ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski