The prospect of Law and Justice winning a second term in office has got Lukasz Lipinski worried. Poland’s socially conservative governing party is odds-on favourite to win a general election on Sunday, an outcome that he believes could cast ominous clouds over the free press in his country.

Deputy editor of Polityka, one of the country’s leading current affairs magazines, Mr Lipinski has covered in detail what many regard as the party’s undermining of the free press in Poland, and he says if they win another four years it will only get worse.

Opinion polls give Law and Justice 40-45 per cent of the vote, almost 20 per cent more than its nearest rival, a coalition of centrist opposition parties. Given this, Law and Justice could well retain its majority in parliament, handing it a further four years of almost unrestricted power in the country.

Since sweeping into office with an absolute majority in 2015, Law and Justice has exerted tight control over public radio and television. It has talked of the "re-Polanisation" of foreign-owned independent media and of making journalism a “licenced” profession. At the same time, Poland’s place on the Reporters Without Borders’ international ranking of press freedom in 180 countries has crashed from 18th in 2015 to 58th last year.