(IPI/IFEX) – The following is a 22 January 2007 IPI letter to Polish President Lech Kaczyński: H.E. Lech Kaczyński President of Poland Kancelaria Prezydenta RP ul. Wiejska 10 00-902 Warsaw Poland Fax: (+ 48 22) 695-12-53 Vienna, 22 January 2007 Your Excellency, The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and […]
(IPI/IFEX) – The following is a 22 January 2007 IPI letter to Polish President Lech Kaczyński:
H.E. Lech Kaczyński
President of Poland
Kancelaria Prezydenta RP
ul. Wiejska 10
00-902 Warsaw
Poland
Fax: (+ 48 22) 695-12-53
Vienna, 22 January 2007
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, urges Your Excellency to grant pardon to Andrzej Marek, editor-in-chief of the weekly Wiesci Polickie (“Police News”), in the western Polish town of Police, who faces three months’ imprisonment for libelling a local official.
On 3 November 2006, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal stopped the appeal procedure initiated by Marek. The decision of the Tribunal closes off the possibility of appealing the sentence against Marek, and the only way to protect him from imprisonment is a petition to the president to grant a pardon.
The charges stem from articles that appeared in Wiesci Polickie in February 2001, which accused Piotr Misilo, spokesman of the Promotion and Information Unit of the Police City Council, of allegedly obtaining his public post through blackmail and using his public position to promote his private advertising agency.
On 6 February 2004, the Szczecin District Court sentenced Marek to three months in prison for libelling a public official. However, the court ruled that it would suspend the sentence if Marek published an apology to Misilo in his newspaper. Marek, who has refused to apologise, cannot appeal the sentence.
While IPI makes no comment on the information contained in the articles written by Marek, it regards the decision to bring criminal libel charges against Marek as a serious press freedom violation. Prison terms are never justified for the dissemination of news and information or for expressions of opinion, no matter how unsettling or offensive they may seem to those involved. This sentence sets a dangerous precedent that will have a chilling effect on press freedom in Poland by encouraging self-censorship among journalists.
The view that the criminalisation of defamation is unnecessary in a democratic society is shared by the world’s leading courts, including the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The clear trend of their opinions is that defamation should be treated under civil law, not as a criminal offence subject to state punishments.
IPI asks that Your Excellency take appropriate steps to grant Andrzej Marek a pardon, and that the process of removing laws that criminalise libel or slander is initiated. Legal remedies already exist in civil libel legislation to provide recourse for defamation. Moreover, public officials need to be afforded less, not more, protection from defamation than ordinary citizens, if there is to be free and vigorous public debate, which is the hallmark of a democratic society.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
