27 January 2006

Alert

Journalist released after imprisonment for libel


Incident details

Andrzej Marek

editor(s)

(CPJ/IFEX) - The following is a CPJ press release:

Imprisoned for libel, a Polish journalist is released

New York, January 26, 2006-A Polish journalist convicted in a rare criminal libel prosecution has been freed two days into his prison term after the country's top constitutional court ordered the suspension of his sentence, according to news reports.

Andrzej Marek, editor-in-chief of the weekly Wiesci Polickie in the town of Police, was released from a municipal prison in the northwestern city of Szczecin on January 18. The criminal libel charge stemmed from two February 2001 articles alleging that Piotr Misilo, speaker of the promotion and information unit of the Police City Council, had obtained his post through blackmail and used the position to promote his private advertising business.

As he entered prison, Marek professed his innocence and said that he would "wait for clemency until my last day in this prison," The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse reported. He was due to serve a three-month term.

The Constitutional Tribunal, the country's highest constitutional court, suspended Marek's sentence and ordered him free in a ruling issued on January 18, the AP said. The day before, Misilo had called on President Lech Kaczynski to pardon Marek. "It has never been my intention to jail a journalist," Misilo told the Polish news agency PAP. "I only wanted him to apologize."

Marek refused to apologize. Upon his release from prison, he said the Constitutional Tribunal's decision was driven by "forces and politicians who could not accept my imprisonment," Marek told PAP. "I am so happy."

Very few Polish journalists have been tried on criminal libel charges since the collapse of communism in 1989, CPJ research shows. And few journalists have been jailed for their work in all of the European Union, according to that research.

Read CPJ's earlier alert on Marek's case: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/europe/poland12jan06na.html

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.cpj.org



Source:

Committee to Protect Journalists
330 7th Ave., 11th Floor
New York, NY 10001
USA
info (@) cpj.org
Phone: +1 212 465 1004
Fax: +1 212 465 9568
 

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More on this case

Court halts appeal by editor facing imprisonment for libel; IPI urges presidential pardon 23 January 2007 Journalist begins 3-month jail term for criminal libel 17 January 2006 IPI urges repeal of prison sentence against editor for libel 3 January 2006 Journalist sentenced to three months in prison for defamation; RSF calls for presidential pardon 23 June 2004 Journalist's prison sentence postponed following protests 25 March 2004 RSF appeals for presidential pardon for journalist sentenced to prison term 5 March 2004 Journalist given three-month jail sentence for libelling local official 9 February 2004

Poland

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