H.E. Aleksander Kwasniewski
President of the Republic of Poland
Kancelaria Prezydenta RP
ul. Wiejska 10
00-902 Warsaw
Poland
Fax: (+ 48 22) 695 12 53
Vienna, 28 September 2004
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, condemns the ongoing criminal court proceedings against Polish publisher and editor Jerzy Urban on charges of insulting Pope John Paul II.
Urban, founder of the weekly satirical Nie, could face between three months and three years in prison if found guilty. The charges stem from an article Urban wrote and published on 15 August 2002, following the Pope’s last visit to his native Poland, entitled “Walking Sado-Masochism”.
In bringing charges against Urban in September of 2003, Warsaw public prosecutor Maciej Kujawski resorted to the use of a special provision of the penal code.
As a personal complaint of insult was not filed, the public prosecutor, who cannot normally bring charges of insult in the name of the State, referred to Article 136.3 of the penal code, which allows him to do so only if the insulted person is a head of state. Kujawski cited the fact that the Pope is the head of state of the Vatican City.
While IPI makes no comment on the information contained in the article written by Urban, it regards the decision to bring criminal charges against Urban as a serious press freedom violation.
Issues of slander or libel are more appropriately settled by the civil courts. Criminal
defamation has been criticised in judgements by some of the world’s leading courts such as the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, the U. S. Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
Already this year, two Polish journalists, Andrzej Marek, editor-in-chief of Wiesci Polickie, and Beata Korzeniewska, a journalist for Gazeta Pomorska, have been sentenced to prison terms for allegedly libelling or slandering a public official. Numerous other criminal charges involving freedom of the press are pending against journalists.
Meeting at its Annual General Assembly on 17 May 2004 in Warsaw, Poland, the IPI members unanimously passed a resolution stating that laws making defamation and insult a criminal offence are illegitimate. At the IPI World Congress Your Excellency expressed a willingness to undertake every effort to help change legal provisions in Poland that allow for such sentences.
IPI also reminds Your Excellency that, in the 1976 case of Handyside v. UK, the European Court of Human Rights stated that freedom of expression is applicable not only to information or ideas that are “favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population”.
The Polish State’s decision to disregard these internationally accepted standards and to proceed with criminal convictions of journalists can only lead to self censorship among members of the media who will fear persecution for practicing their profession.
IPI strongly believes that 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. We therefore strongly urge Your Excellency to do everything in your power to ensure that the charges against Jerzy Urban are discontinued and that aspects of the penal code that criminalise libel or slander are removed so that freedom of expression and of opinion can contribute to a democratic society in Poland.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
Cc. H.E. Andrzej Kalwas
Minster of Justice
Ministry of Justice
Al. Ujazdowskie 11
00-950 Warsaw
Poland
Fax: (+ 48 22) 621 55 40 / 621 49 86
