Bid to ban ‘death camp’ phrases: Censorship

A novel attack on press freedom and perhaps the imprecise use of adjectives has been made by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party.

A novel attack on press freedom and perhaps the imprecise use of adjectives has been made by Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party.

The lower house of the Polish parliament has approved legislation that would be laughable if it was not about genocide. The bill proposes fines and jail terms of up to three years for writers who employ phrases such as ‘Polish death camps’ when referring to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chelmno, Majdanek, or any of the other 450 extermination and slave labour camps established and run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.