The proposed new advertising tax that prompted a blackout protest represents “just the tip of the iceberg” in government pressure on the independent media, according to the authors of a new report on media freedom in Poland.

Under Aleksandar Vucic’s Progressives, the line between the state and organised crime has become increasingly blurred, raising the question – is Serbia a mafia state? According to the Hungarian sociologist Balint Magyar, in a ‘mafia state’ “The state itself, at the top, works as a criminal organisation.”

Ahead of the October elections, a new liberal party is looking to mobilise segments of the Czech public who have given up on politics to depose the governing ANO party. But LidePRO is finding the pandemic an obstacle to its grassroots campaign.