(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI letter to President Lech Kaczynski and Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro: H.E. Lech Kaczynski President of Poland Kancelaria Prezydenta RP ul. Wiejska 10 00-902 Warsaw Poland Fax: (+ 48 22) 695 12 53 H.E. Zbigniew Ziobro Minister of Justice Ministry of Justice Al. Ujazdowskie 11 00-950 Warsaw Poland […]
(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI letter to President Lech Kaczynski and Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro:
H.E. Lech Kaczynski
President of Poland
Kancelaria Prezydenta RP
ul. Wiejska 10
00-902 Warsaw
Poland
Fax: (+ 48 22) 695 12 53
H.E. Zbigniew Ziobro
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
Al. Ujazdowskie 11
00-950 Warsaw
Poland
Fax: (+ 48 22) 621 55 40 / 621 49 86
Vienna, 3 January 2006
Your Excellencies,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, urges an immediate repeal of the prison sentence against Andrzej Marek, editor-in-chief of the weekly Wiesci Polickie (“Police News”) in the western Polish town of Police, who faces a three-month prison term for libeling a local official.
The charges stem from articles about Piotr Misilo, spokesman of the Promotion and Information Unit of the Police City Council, which appeared in Wiesci Polickie in February 2001. The articles accused Piotr Misilo of 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 jail for libeling a public official. However, the court ruled that it would suspend the sentence if Marek published an apology to Misilo in his newspaper. We understand that Marek, who has refused to apologise, cannot appeal the sentence and has been requested by the appropriate authorities to commence his prison sentence on 16 January 2006.
Thus, after nearly two years and despite appeals to the President of Poland and the Minister of Justice, which were backed by numerous journalists’ organisations, Marek’s prison sentence again becomes an important issue. We understand that Marek would be the first journalist in Poland in many years to serve a prison sentence for exercising freedom of speech.
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 him as a serious press freedom violation. Furthermore, the sentence handed down to Marek is a gross violation of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as contained in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Prison terms are never justified for dissemination of news and information or for expressions of opinion, no matter how unsettling or offensive they may seem to those involved. This sentencing 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 illegitimate 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 appropriate steps be taken by the relevant authorities to either grant Andrzej Marek a pardon or repeal his sentence, 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
