30 November 2021
A Blatant Attack on Free Media
In a recent and shocking judgment of the first instance, a criminal court in Warsaw has found the Polish journalist Ewa Siedlecka guilty of criminal libel (defamation) for commenting on the organized campaign of hatred against independent Polish judges. This account deeply resonates with my own personal experience. Toutes proportions gardeés, I should add, since Ms Siedlecka has done immeasurably more for the rule of law in Poland than I did, and has run much higher risks – and incurred higher personal costs. Continue reading >>
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18 March 2021
The “Pablo Hasél Case”
In Spain, the recent conviction of the rapper Pablo Hasél for ‘crimes of expression’ has aroused intense public debate. He defamed members of the Spanish royal family, which is an aggravated offence under the Spanish Penal Code, as compared to defamation of any other member of the public. The reasoning of Hasél’s sentence is, on several points, hardly compatible with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in terms of freedom of expression. It is, in fact, an overzealous application of an already problematic offence, variations of which the ECHR has already condemned. Continue reading >>
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06 December 2017
Criticizing the new President of the Polish Constitutional Court: A Crime against the State?
L'état c'est moi. Thus said France’s Louis XIV, and thus seems to think of herself Julia Przyłębska – since the 2016 “coup” against the Constitutional Court in Poland, she is the President of that Court, de facto appointed to the post by the man who runs Poland these days, Jarosław Kaczyński. Last October a Polish oppositional daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, described how she allegedly colluded with the Polish State security in the pursuit of her position at the Constitutional Court. Przyłębska tried to defend herself by using criminal-law instruments otherwise designed to protect the State. "By attacking me, you attack the State,” she seems to suggest. Continue reading >>02 August 2016