Independent media are a vital element of liberal democracy. Zselyke Csaky explains changes in the Hungarian legal and media market landscape and how media in other countries can learn to be more resilient against government pressure.

Judges from Kraków and Słupsk, as well as judges’ associations, want justices promoted by the new National Council of the Judiciary to refrain from hearing cases. In Łódź, one such judge decided on his own to stop adjudicating, and the court’s president has stopped assigning him new cases. This is a reaction to the historic resolution taken by the College of the Supreme Court.

Prof. Koen Lenaerts, President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, explains why mutual trust and judicial independence are of fundamental importance to the EU Member States 

The following is an English translation of the decision taken by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal to suspend the Supreme Court resolution of 23 January.

The Supreme Court’s resolution avoids the competence dispute that political decisions sought to force it into. In its resolution of 23 January, it explained what an independent court is. It also told judges to be careful when ruling, for them to be sure they and their colleagues are all above board.

Polish President Andrzej Duda’s recent remarks on judges have provoked a fierce response. “The suggestion that judges are irresponsible and ‘should be eliminated’ because otherwise ‘Poland will never be a normal country’ is an example of hate speech, which can lead to violence directed against individual judges,” writes Iustitia, the largest association of judges in Poland.

Poland’s Supreme Court has adopted a resolution on the legality of judicial appointments made by the reconstituted National Council of the Judiciary and on rulings by the new Disciplinary Chamber. What follows is a translation of that ruling into English.

A disciplinary officer for line prosecutors has initiated disciplinary proceedings against Katarzyna Gembalczyk, one of the leaders of the Lex Super Omnia prosecutors’ association, with a critical stance towards Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro. The disciplinary officer is demanding an explanation for why she was dressed in her robe during the Thousand Robes March. “I was performing my duty to defend the rule of law.”

Respect for the rule of law is one of the key conditions for EU membership. No country can join or remain in the EU without an independent judiciary.

“The amendments of December 2019 diminish judicial independence and put Polish judges into the impossible situation of having to face disciplinary proceedings for decisions required by the ECHR, the law of the European Union, and other international instruments.”