Explained: Why is Poland’s ruling party facing heat after the suicide of Oppn lawmaker’s son?

An Opposition lawmaker’s son taking his own life has left Poland’s ruling party in the line of fire. The 15-year-old, who was abused by a paedophile, killed himself after state media revealed some details about the case. State media is controlled by the ruling Law and Justice, a conservative and nationalist party facing elections in the fall. Let’s take a closer look at the case: What happened? The teenager, the son of the Opposition Civic Platform party, was in 2020 abused by a local Civic Platform politician and LGBT activist. That man, identified as Krzysztof F., was sentenced in 2021 to more than four years in prison for sexual abuse and providing drugs to minors. By law, the victim’s identity was not released – standard protection given to minors who are the victims of sexual crimes in order to prevent further suffering on their part. His mother, a member of the Opposition Civic Platform party announced he had died on 17 February. She gave no details about the reasons for his death, but she requested that the “media” — putting the word in quotation marks — respect her family’s privacy and stay away from the funeral of her son. Why is the Law and Justice Party facing the heat? Some accused state media, controlled by the ruling Law and Justice Party, of creating the circumstances that led to the suicide. The boy took his own life two years after the abuse, but just weeks after state media began reporting on the case.

Radio Szczecin in December revealed some details about the case.

While it did not name the boy, the radio station gave his age and information about his mother being a lawmaker. It was enough for people to easily deduce who the boy was. According to Politico, Radio Szczecin also claimed that the Civic Platform party attempted to keep this information secret to protect the activist. That report led to state broadcaster TVP among other government outlets also reporting the story. Politico quoted education minister Przemysław Czarnek as telling sayin, “The same people who are so loud about the fight against pedophilia are hiding pedophiles in their own ranks.” Some social media accounts affiliated with the Law and Justice party also accused the boy’s mother of hushing up the incident to protect her career. The lawmaker’s tragedy comes in a country bitterly divided and one that is facing elections this fall that will determine whether Law and Justice, a conservative and nationalist party, will manage to hang on for a third term. The traditionally Catholic nation has for years been grappling with divisions amid revelations of clerical abuse in the church. The ruling party is strongly aligned with the church and has often argued that sexual crimes are not solely limited to the church but exist in other parts of life as well. The Law and Justice Party has also campaigned against LGBT rights, according to The Guardian. Govt control of media under focus The incident has shone the spotlight on the Polish government’s control of media. Since news of the boy’s death was released on Friday, social media in Poland has been filled with condemnation of Radio Szczecin, an outlet of state radio, and the journalist involved, as well as other state media outlets that reported the story. The Telegraph quoted a report from the Polish Society of Journalists as saying that “Poland’s public media serves as a propaganda tool” for the state. Since Law and Justice took power, Poland has slipped in the media freedom rankings from 18th place in 2015 to 66th place in 2022. “While the private market has remained fairly pluralistic featuring influential independent media such as TVN, the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza or the online outlet Onet.pl, the public media, especially TVP, have been transformed into instruments of government propaganda,” the 2022 Press Freedom Index report by Reporters Without Borders said last year. “The impact of PiS-controlled media, not just on political culture but the whole of public life in Poland, has been devastating,” said Anna Siewierska-Chmaj, a political scientist from the University of Rzeszów told Politico. “People have always differed about politics, but it’s never been that there’s no media — or any public institution for that matter — that people trust now.” ‘Will hold Law and Justice to account’ On Twitter, Opposition politicians voiced grief, horror and outrage at news of his death, which comes amid a rise in youth suicides. Donald Tusk, the head of Civic Platform, vowed to hold Law and Justice to account “for every villainy, for all human harm and tragedies they have caused while in power.” The Guardian quoted Polish Member of European Parliament Radosław Sikorski as claiming such operations between the ruling party and prosecutors were “planned … and routinely used to destroy political competitors” Government spokesman Piot Müller on Monday refused to comment on the matter.

With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.