From the BBC World Service, welcome to the latest edition of the documentary podcast.

Every week we bring you a range of stories from our presenters and reporters across the

world. Please do rate the documentary on your podcast app and leave a comment. Let us

know what you think.

A group of Polish schoolchildren are getting a history lesson by a gate. It's gate number

two of the Gedant's shipyard and it was here back in the 1980s that the successful fight

against communism began. The iconic Moustacheoed L'Equilenza co-founded the Solidarity Trade

Union movement here and it was Solidarity's birth which would ultimately lead to the fall

of the Soviet Union.

Now though Poland is accused of backsliding on the very democratic traditions started here

and some say it's even edging towards authoritarianism again. I'm Nemi Grimli and in this edition

of Europe's illiberal democrats here on the BBC World Service, we'll ask whether the

country's hard-won freedoms really are at risk.

You don't have to have been long in Poland to realise it's an incredibly divided country.

I'm currently walking through the wind and rain in central Warsaw alongside a huge demonstration

on women's rights. That's because a year ago the governing law and justice party tried

to bring in a total ban on abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. It was incredibly

controversial and in the end the government backed down but these protesters were worried

that the government might try again.

One of those on the march was Kaya, a big name in Polish pop music and a critic of Poland's

strongly Catholic government. I caught up with her in the lobby of a Warsaw-based radio

station and I began by asking her about the state of free speech in her country. I feel

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