PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński is a divisive figure in Poland | Carsten Koall/Getty Images Letter to the editor Defend Poland’s civil society, not its ruling party PiS has waged an all-out campaign against media freedom, judicial independence and minorities.

In the opinion piece "In defense of Poland’s ruling party" (October 9), Agnieszka Kołakowska, a Polish writer and translator based in Paris, paints a rather idyllic picture of Law and Justice (PiS), which earlier this month secured a majority for a second term.

If democracy in Poland is doing well, it's not because of PiS rule, but in spite of it.

Public institutions have sued private media outlets for libel, sometimes preemptively, for their reporting on corruption scandals and on the alleged misuse of public funds to mount a smear campaign against judges who spoke out against the government's controversial judicial reforms.

PiS Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński has pledged to keep pursuing these reforms, despite the fact that the new disciplinary system for judges that is part of this plan prompted the European Commission to refer another EU law infringement case against Poland to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Meanwhile, four years after PiS portrayed refugees and Muslims as the enemy, it is once again adding fuel to the hateful positions of the far right by waging an all-out campaign against what they call "LGBT ideology" with the help of state-backed media and the Catholic church.

Over the summer, people marching in LGBT pride events in Białystok and Lublin were viciously attacked. Two of my journalist colleagues were attacked with bottles and metal cans thrown above the riot police line. While filming the scene, I was punched, kicked and hit with a club by a group of four people.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's representative on freedom of the media, Harlem Désir, was quick to condemn the violence. The Polish government, however, was ambiguous and unhurried in its response.

"It's worth asking whether such events should be organized in the future, as they are raising huge resistance," Education Minister Dariusz Piontkowski said after the attacks in Białystok.

While PiS is gradually suppressing systems of public scrutiny, including the media and people who don't fit into its "patriotic " narrative, Poland's civic society and its institutions have been the ones to fight for our democratic rights.

It's thanks to them — to the judges who fight for the independence of the judiciary and the thousands of Poles who take to the streets in support of the rule of law — that Poland is still a democracy.

These are the people who need defending now, not the ruling party.

Maciek Piasecki

Journalist at fact-checking non-profit OKO.press

Warsaw, Poland