4liberty.eu N E W S L E T T E R [FEBRUARY 2021]

The February issue of the 4liberty.eu Newsletter provides an overview of the articles published on the 4liberty.eu website, serving as a starting point for further exploration.

Detmar Doering & Natalie Marakova (FNF):
Media Pluralism in Central Europe Under Pressure
Several private Polish radio stations went silent last week. The front pages of many Polish newspapers and news portals as well as the screens of private TV stations remained black. In a joint action with the slogan “Media without a choice”, they protested against the plan of the national populist PiS government to introduce a tax on the advertising revenues of media companies and to make cinemas and providers of large outdoor advertising spaces pay.

Tanja Porcnik (Visio Institut for Liberal Voices Syndicated):
Economic Freedom Vital for Resilience in a Pandemic
In non-emergency times, the role of economic freedom, defined as a lack of interference or coercion by others in an individual’s economic decisions, has been scientifically proven to yield economic growth and prosperity for the greatest number of people.

Kristians Vasilevskis (Projekt: Polska):
Latvia: From Marginal Groups to Masses
Political forces that extensively use hate speech in Latvia are not sizable, nor they receive the amount of support that their ideological counterparts in Western Europe do. Nevertheless, in recent years, those fringe ideas got a bit of momentum, with the creation of internet-based political movements.

Amedeo Gasparini (FNF):
Kaja Kallas and Liberal Estonia of Future
After the resignation of Jüri Ratas (Estonian Center Party) on January 13th, due to an inquiry entailing alleged corruption charges against his party, Kaja Kallas, the center-right Reform Party’s leader, has become the first female Estonian Prime Minister.

Thomas Clausen (Liberales Institute):
Beyond Digital Education: Ethical Formation in Digital Age
After having spent more than two hundred pages on Kantian philosophy, Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister, and a number of obscure German Pietists, Jennifer A. Herdt hurls the reader of her newest book back into a seemingly very different present.

INESS:
Next Generation EU: Growth, At What Cost?
Next Generation EU and its crucial part, Recovery and Resilience Facility, promise to bring an era of growth to the European Union. Can this promise be fulfilled, and if so, at what cost? The Slovak Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) has just released its new study titled Next Generation EU: Why We Should Be Concerned about the Recovery Plan.

Milosz Hodun (Projekt: Polska):
PiS TV: How Polish Ruling Party Took Over Leading Media Outlet
In what a few years ago would have seemed an unfathomable turn of events, the current Estonian government is set to hold a nonbinding referendum in the spring of 2021 to solidify the definition of marriage as being between a man and woman.