After a warning from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) about a “press freedom state of emergency” in Poland, the hardline government that’s challenging the European Union over rule of law extended a broadcasting license for news channel TVN24, but is still squeezing media outlets.

The European Union “made a horrible mistake in Europe by underestimating the role of media for upholding democracy,” European Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová said, citing the murders of journalists Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta in 2017 and Ján Kuciak in Slovakia in 2018. Both probed high-level corruption.