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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland’s justice and interior ministers have announced the establishment of a commission that will look into cases of abuse of power against civil society under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.
During a joint press conference, the ministers explained that the body is not a commission of inquiry but will collect documentation on attacks on freedom of speech, the activities of state services and the functioning of public media during PiS’s time in power.
“This commission will deal with topics related to freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression”, said justice minister Adam Bodnar.
💭 Uważamy, że przeprowadzenie tego typu działań jest bardzo ważne dla polskiego społeczeństwa obywatelskiego, które nieraz może mieć poczucie, że stało się przedmiotem różnego rodzaju szykan i niechętnych działań ze strony organów władzy.
⚖️ Minister @Adbodnar podczas wspólnej… pic.twitter.com/qqjKYG2Iu6
— Min. Sprawiedliwości (@MS_GOV_PL) April 7, 2025
The commission will consist of 11 members and will be chaired by lawyer Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram, who during the rule of PiS co-founded the Free Courts (Wolne Sądy) group to defend judicial independence and the rule of law in Poland.
PiS was in power in Poland from 2015 until 2023. During this time, it conducted an overhaul of public media – which subsequently served as a propaganda mouthpiece for the party – and the judicial system, including the country’s highest courts, leading to an ongoing rule-of-law crisis.
PiS was also criticised for its treatment of activist groups – particularly those advocating for women’s and LGBT rights – including cases of unlawful detention and the Pegasus surveillance scandal.
“What was happening was not an individual case. It was a systemic attack on civil society to extinguish its spirit and introduce a chilling, intimidating effect,” highlighted Gregorczyk-Abram.
The newly created commission will collect documentation concerning the measures taken by PiS, described by its chairwoman as “instruments of repression against civil society”.
It will also create recommendations to “protect citizens from systemic attacks by the authorities” in the future and will address the issue of compensation mechanisms for those affected by such abuses of power.
Fifteen months since the change of government, Poland's rule-of-law crisis continues – indeed, many Poles think the situation has got worse.@J_Jaraczewski explains the roots of the crisis, what its impact has been, and how it might be resolved https://t.co/7KOCURV3dU
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 17, 2025
Bodnar, who served as Poland’s commissioner for human rights between 2015-2021, added that the body “will address both the activities of the public media and various restrictions in the context of organising and holding legal assemblies” as well as “the various surveillance mechanisms used against civil society”.
Meanwhile, Tomasz Siemoniak, the interior minister, explained that the commission will establish “how it happened and who was responsible for…activists being infiltrated with the Pegasus system” as well as how information obtained using Pegasus was transmitted to the state TV channel TVP.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych / X
Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.
