Mask Diplomacy
The Chinese authorities are doing everything to direct the attention of the world away from their mistakes that contributed to the spread of the pandemic – says Alicja Bachulska, an analyst of Chinese politics
Konrad Szczygieł
About Konrad Szczygieł
Posts by Konrad Szczygieł:
- Blog
- China
- Civil Society
- COVID-19
- Czech Republic
- Ecology
- Environment
- fake news
- Hungary
- IJ4UE
- Militarized Patriotism
- Poland
- Populism
- Radicals with Reach
- Russia
- Slovakia
- Ukraine
- uncategorized
EU funding fraud in Poland we know little about
Though the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) prepares comprehensive activity reports every year, it provides almost no information about recently disclosed crimes. Neither do the Polish authorities communicate openly and comprehensively about the nature and extent of EU subsidy frauds in the country. Story by Mariusz Jałoszewski, Konrad Szczygieł / Fundacja Reporterów Attempts at obtaining information […]
Pole and Hungarian brothers be. How Warsaw and Budapest use taxpayers’ money to build pro-government propaganda
With almost five hundred media outlets owned by a single pro-government foundation and hundreds of millions of euros of state advertising transferred annually to fund it, Hungary’s right-wing government has built Europe’s largest propaganda machine since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Warsaw follows in Budapest’s footsteps with a growing stream of taxpayers’ money funnelled […]
The operation ‘Lame Rebellion’
False Twitter and Facebook accounts improve the way the public sees the chairman of the Polish national state broadcaster TVP, help politicians in their election campaigns, act as lobbyists for armaments companies and carry out attacks directed at journalists. These accounts reach millions of recipients. A large-scale disinformation campaign is organized by a Warsaw-based PR company and an ex-politician, while the whole thing is co-founded by the National Disabled Persons Rehabilitation Fund. The clues from the troll farm lead us to Bartłomiej Misiewicz, who is currently suspected of corruption.
Elections under the Polish and Russian watchful eyes
In November 2018, several Polish activists and journalists from a leftist website joined Russia’s CIS-EMO delegation on a trip to Madagascar to monitor the country’s presidential election. The group of observers included people with links to the Kremlin. Yet instead of acting as observers, they secretly funded the campaigns of several presidential candidates.
Rule-of-law problems at the door
The parliamentary elections in the fall in Poland will be crucial. We’ve already seen in Hungary what eight years in power can mean both for the governing party and its loyalist structures and the opposition — says Zselyke Csaky form Freedom House in intervew with Vsquare
German politician and Polish nationalists in the Kremlin’s service
A year after fire was set to a Hungarian minority center in Uzhhorod, Western Ukraine, new facts are coming to light: the operation by Polish nationalists was financed by people linked to the German AfD party, with strong ties to Moscow.
Millions for Uniforms
For almost 10 years, the Polish ministry of defense has been trying to attract non-governmental organizations to help promote ‘patriotic and pro-defense attitudes’. With the PiS government, golden days have come for pro-defense organizations. Money, privileges and even exercises with American soldiers.
T-shirts made in Poland.
Not in the European Union
The first stores selling patriotic clothing in Poland opened doors nearly 10 years ago. Today, everyone is wearing it: from the Polish president Andrzej Duda to school children, and to parents and their kids at patriotic marches. The aim is to show strong attachment to patriotism and flaunt it around: you simply either are a patriot, or you are not.
Poland’s new minister: nationalist, supporter of Russia
The start of a year Poland welcomes with the controversial appointment of Adam Andruszkiewicz as Poland’s deputy minister for digital affairs