Website launched for reporting defamation of Poland and late Polish pope

A prominent conservative legal group has launched a website to encourage people to report cases of public insults against the Polish state or nation – a crime punishable by up to three years in prison – or defamation of religious figures including the late Polish Pope John Paul II.

The NGO, Ordo Iuris – which has been prominently involved in campaigns against abortion and “LGBT ideology” in Poland – says its new initiative aims to “protect the values ​​that lie at the basis of our society”, to “stop the attacks on our country” and to counteract “Christianophobia”.

“Have you witnessed defamation of Poland or Poles in a public space? Have you heard about situations of defamation of Saint John Paul II or of Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński requiring legal intervention?” asked Ordo Iuris.

Those who have are advised to click through to a new website, www.zatrzymajmyznieslawienia.pl (meaning “let’s stop defamation”). Ordo Iuris says that the service will be an “extremely important” tool to “hold perpetrators of defamation accountable”, offering three tracks for reporting defamation.

The first focuses on insults against Poland and Poles. Under Polish law, it is a criminal offence to “publicly insult the nation or the Republic of Poland”, punishable by up to three years in prison.

Ordo Iuris notes that its experts already analyse “hundreds” of such cases, but says that users who want to help “fight for the good name of our country” should report them to the website to avoid incidents getting lost “in the information storm”.

As an example of its efforts, Ordo Iuris says it has sued The Daily Mail, a British newspaper, for £200,000 for an article suggesting that the Sobibór extermination camp established and run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland was a “Polish death camp”.

It also cites “anti-Polish statements” by opposition politicians, including claims by left-wing MEP Sylwia Spurek about Poland’s rule of law situation and human rights record.

The second track regards insults against Pope John Paul II, who was made a saint in 2014, and the recently beatified Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. As well as being religious figures, both are revered for their role in resisting and helping overthrow Poland’s communist regime.

“Recent years have been full of disgusting attacks on the two spiritual fathers of Polish independence and freedom,” says Ordo Iuris. It asks that incidents of “slander” and “destruction of memorial sites” devoted to the religious figures be reported to its lawyers.

Finally, the organisation also seeks to tackle “cases of Christianophobia” by providing an “institutionalised weapon in the defense of religious freedom in Poland”. It asks those who have experienced hatred or discrimination because of their religion to write to them.

Among Poland’s wide range of defamation and insult laws, it is a criminal offence to “offend religious sentiment”, which is punishable by up to two years in prison. Recent years have seen a rise in the number of blasphemy cases brought in Poland under rule of the current national-conservative government.

The education ministry recently helped launch a new academic centre devoted to “counteracting Christianophobia” and “disseminating knowledge about the persecution of Christians”.

Ordo Iuris has itself grown in influence under the current government. Its “Charter of Family Rights” has been adopted by many local authorities and the organisation’s founder, Aleksander Stępkowski, served as a deputy minister before being appointed a Supreme Court judge in 2019.

Ordo Iuris has also played a leading role in campaigns to restrict access to abortion (with a near-total ban coming into force last year) and to withdraw Poland from a European convention on domestic violence.

The organisation has been the subject of much controversy, in particular over its international links and sources of funding.

VSquare, an investigative journalism group, describes Ordo Iuris as part of an “international network of ultra-conservative organisations” aiming to “eradicate liberal values, tighten the law, change the language of the debate, fill key positions and build political influence”.

Main image credit: ADAM GOLEC / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Maria Wilczek

Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.