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Archive for: e-press

Personal interest, case I CSK 111/11

March 25th, 2012, Tomasz Rychlicki

Cezary Pazura sued Grupa o2, the owner and publisher of pudelek.pl website. Mr Pazura claimed that the company infringed his dignity, the inviolability of the home, privacy and publicity, by publishing 17 articles that concerned his relationship with Edyta Zajac, then fiancee, and now his wife. He argued that comments like “his mistress was no longer pretending, what she meant?”, “oldish playboy” were clear examples of the infringement. The District Court agreed with Mr Pazura, but Grupa o2 appealled, and the Appellate Court reversed the contested judgment and dismissed the suit. Mr Pazura filed a cassation complaint.

The Supreme Court in its judgment of 14 December 2011 case file I CSK 111/11 repealed the contested decision and returned it to the Appellate Court for further reconsideration. The Court held that the public status of a person does not automatically mean that his or her private life becomes also a “public life”. The Court clarified the understanding of the provision of Article 14(6) of the Polish Act of 26 January 1984 on Press law – APL – (in Polish: ustawa Prawo prasowe), published in Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 5, item 24, with subsequent amendmets.

It is not allowed to publish information and data concerning the private sphere of life without the consent of the person concerned, unless it is connected directly with the public activity of such a person.

The Court ruled that in this case it was necessary to demonstrate the relationship between the public activity carried out by Mr Pazura, and published image, or private information that was published on pudelek.pl website. Therefore, it had to be a relationship between a person’s behavior in the public sphere. In addition, the disclosure of such information should serve to protect specific, socially legitimate interest. Therefore, the primary task of the courts was to determine whether in this case, Mr. Pazura’s consent was granted, or whether it was not needed at all.

Press law, case SK 42/09

December 16th, 2011, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Constitutional Tribunal in its judgment of 14 December 2011 case file SK 42/09 held that criminal sanctions for failure to register a daily newspaper or a periodical, as provided in Article 45 of the Polish Act of 26 January 1984 on Press law – APL – (in Polish: ustawa Prawo prasowe), published in Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 5, item 24, with subsequent amendments, are unconstitutional.

Anybody who publishes a daily newspaper or a periodical without registration or with registration suspended is subject to a fine penalty or the restriction of liberty.

This judgement indicates that the Polish legislator should consider a separate regulation for a printed press, and other rules for periodicals published, in particular, in the Internet. The Court pointed out not only the issue of criminal sanctions for the publication of press without registration, but also the issue of the obligation to register the press, which is still available in the APL.

See also “Press law, case IV KK 174/07“, “Press law, case II K 367/08” and “Press law, case VI Ka 409/07“.

Personal interests, case I CSK 743/10

October 8th, 2011, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in its judgment case file I CSK 743/10 ruled that if the newspaper, which lost a case for protection of personal interests and was ordered to publish an apology in the paper version, has also an online edition, then such a newspaper should also place a reference to apologies for this publication in its online archive.

Personal interest, case I C 1050/09

June 3rd, 2011, Tomasz Rychlicki

Paweł Wodniak, journalist of the website “Fakty Oświęcim” was sued by Artur Kierczyński for violation of his personal interest. Mr Wodniak prepared a short video report in which presented testimonials of Broszkowice citizens, who participated in blocking the road 933 in a protest against a nearby gravel-pit from being functional. The report also contained footage of Marian Gołąb, who was the Mayor of Broszkowice, stating that there is already a criminal investigation underway on the ex-owner of the gravel-pit. Mr Gołąb released full name of Artur Kierczyński. Mr Kierczyński sued for violation of personal interest for releasing his full surname while there was an ongoing criminal trial against him. In his opinion, Mr Wodniak’s behavior breached the rule of alleged innocence and it was a breach of Article 13(2) of the Polish Act of 26 January 1984 on Press law – APL – (in Polish: ustawa Prawo prasowe), published in Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 5, item 24, with subsequent amendmets.

One cannot publish in the media personal information and images of individuals, against whom there is an ongoing preparatory proceedings or court proceeding as well as personal information and images of witnesses, wounded and hurt, unless these persons agree to it.

The District Court in Kraków in its judgment case file I C 1050/09 dismissed the lawsuit. The Court ruled that a news report that merely mentions an individual’s involvement in a criminal proceeding does not constitute a violation of the above mentioned regulations on Press Law, the rule of innocence, or journalism ethics.

Personal interests, case I C 588/10

February 11th, 2011, Tomasz Rychlicki

Polish businessman, sued the owner of a Polish internet website Money.pl seeking the removal of two press releases that came from the Polish Press Agency and were republished at money.pl. In his view, the publication of these texts was made in breach of his personal interests, because they informed about earlier, unsubstantiated accusations directed at him by the Polish newspaper “Gazeta Polska” and Tomasz Sakiewicz, the editor-in-chief of “Gazeta Polska” and a well known right-wing journalist. These proved to be false accusations. The publisher and Sakiewicz pledged to publish apology.

The District Court in Kraków in its judgment of 10 January 2011 case file I C 588/10 dismissed the suit. The Court ruled that media are allowed to publish diffrent comments and informationn, even if some people mentioned there, are against such publications.

The Appellate Court in Kraków in its judgment of 19 May 2011 case file I ACa 372/11 overturned the judgment of the District Court.

Personal interest, case XXIV C 760/09

October 26th, 2010, Tomasz Rychlicki

Kataryna, actually Katarzyna Sadło appeared in the Polish blogoshpehre shortly after the so-called Rywin affair. Since then Kataryna simultaneously publish her blogs on both blox and salon24.pl websites. She quickly became well-known person who comments on political life in Poland and received a large number of comments. Her identity quickly began to attract the interest of the mass-media. A few journalists were suspected for writing under this pseudonym. Kataryna gave interviews in press but did not disclose her identity.

In May 2009, the owner Salon24 website announced that Krzysztof Czuma, son of the Polish Minister of Justice Andrzej Czuma, sent a letter to Salon24 seeking the removal of lying and offensive blog entry of “a Kataryna”. Salon24 responded that the content of the blog posts does not affect the TOS of Salon24 and therefore it will not be removed. However, Kataryna announced that if the minister Czuma would like to bring the civil lawsuit against her, she will reveal her personal data.

Shortly after that, the Polish daily newspaper “Dziennik Polska-Europa-Świat” published information that it knows the identity of the blogger. Although the newspaper did not publish her name, but described it in a way that allowed for unambiguous identification. These were more than enough information to let Internauts to identify Katarzyna Sadło as Kataryna.

Kataryna decided to reveal (tweet) the contents of SMS, which has received from Sylwia Czubkowska, a journalist reporter from Dziennik, in which the she urged Kataryna to disclose her identity in the newspapers and warned that otherwise the information may be used by “Fakt” which is a tabloid owned by the same publisher – Axel Springer Poland. Kataryna sued Axel Springer, the publisher of “Dziennik” and the editors of this newspaper for violation of her right to privacy. The case was brought before the District Court in Warsaw case file XXIV C 760/09, however it was settled out of the court.

Press law, case II SA/Wa 1885/07

October 30th, 2008, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Voivodeship Administrative Court in its order of 30 October 2008 case file II SA/Wa 1885/07 held that the legislature clearly included in the definition of the press all existing and emerging as a result of technical progress, means of mass communication (…), to disseminate periodical publications in print, video, audio, or other distribution technology, and although there are no established views on the recognition of internet communication as the press therefore the content of the provisions of Article 7(2) pt 1 of the Polish Act of 26 January 1984 on Press law – APL – (in Polish: ustawa Prawo prasowe), published in Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 5, item 24, with subsequent amendmets, should, however, allow for the broad understanding of the concept of “press”, as it was also interpreted by the Supreme Court in its order of 27 July 2007 case file IV KK 0174/07. See “Press law, case IV KK 174/07“. The court found that the Internet journals that can be considered as press publications, do not need to have a typical electronic “newspaper” form, similar to that published in the on line system by the big companies with the well-known news titles. Of course, it may also mean that the status of “the press” will get everything that is posted on the Internet, just because it is the result of technological progress and gets a potentially unlimited audience. Whether a publication that is available online has press characteristics should decided by the goal/objective/tasks of such publications. Since the role and task of the press is to disseminate information, the periodicity of communication, the cyclic information of the public of certain facts of social, economic, political, educational, cultural, music, film and art issues, etc., under the title, name, address or even a link it would indicate the purpose pursued by the editors, the publisher and the author of an electronic publication, a website that was created specifically for this purpose.

Press law, case IV KK 174/07

March 31st, 2008, Tomasz Rychlicki

The Supreme Court in its order of 27 July 2007 case file IV KK 0174/07 held that publishing news within Internet website which was available under szyciepoprzemysku.prv.pl domain name, is the deemed as equivalent to press publishing. They were charged by the Prosecutor for publishing the press without registration which was the breach of the provisions of Article 45 of the Polish Act of 26 January 1984 on Press law – APL – (in Polish: ustawa Prawo prasowe), published in Journal of Laws (Dziennik Ustaw) No. 5, item 24, with subsequent amendments.

Anybody who publishes a daily newspaper or a periodical without registration or with registration suspended is subject to a fine penalty or the restriction of liberty.

All periodicals and newspapers must be registered at a local court and the registration form must contain: title of the publication, address of the editorial office, personal data of the editor-in-chief, the name and address of the publisher and frequency of publication. The Supreme Court stated that it is undisputed that the newspapers and magazines by the fact that they appear in the form of Internet transmission do not lose their characteristic of the press title, both when online communication is accompanied by the transfer of messages established on paper, printed, being their different electronic form which is available online and when the message exists only in electronic form on the Internet, but appears periodically, meeting the requirements referred to in Article 7(2) of the APL.

A daily is a general-information periodical print or a message transmitted via sound or sound and image published more frequently than once a week.

The Supreme Court once again stressed that the precondition for the recognition of mass media as the press, resulting from technical progress, depends on the periodic dissemination of publications and communications periodicals distributed via the Internet may take the form of newspapers or magazines, depending on the interval of appearance.

See also “Press law, case II K 367/08“.