A photojournalist who was previously found guilty of assaulting a police officer while covering Poland’s abortion protests has had her conviction overturned on appeal. Her initial detention three years ago prompted protests from fellow journalists and international press organisations.
The incident in question occurred in November 2020, during the wave of mass protests following a ruling by the constitutional court that outlawed almost all remaining legal abortions.
Agata Grzybowska, an award-winning photojournalist working with Associated Press and Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading Polish daily, was forcibly detained by police while covering a protest outside the education ministry.
Videos published on social media showed that during her arrest she presented her press card to the police while members of the crowd shouted that she was a journalist.
A picture is worth a thousand words… @AP & @gazeta_wyborcza photojournalist Agata Grzybowska showing her press ID as police ignore her credentials & arrest her at protest she was covering. #Poland pic.twitter.com/RgMn4LLXk7
— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) November 23, 2020
She was then taken to a nearby police station, charged with violating the bodily integrity of an officer, and released after a few hours. She claimed that at the police station she was pressured to plead guilty but refused to do so.
At the time, a spokesman for the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, Radosław Fogiel, claimed that Grzybowska had “kicked a policeman”, notes Gazeta Wyborcza. However, the journalist claimed that in fact she had been attacked by the police.
In a first-instance ruling, Grzybowska was found guilty by a district court in Warsaw and was ordered to pay a 2,000 zloty fine, compensation to the injured police officer and the costs of proceedings.
However, she appealed that ruling, with her lawyer, Jacek Dubois, describing it as “a bizarre verdict that accepted violence against women”. That appeal was successful, with Grzybowska announcing on Facebook that her conviction has been overturned.
“It was the officers who used violence against the protesters; they prevented press representatives from reporting on the course of the legal protest,” Dubois told Gazeta Wyborcza. “The court was critical of the police’s actions and noted that their methods had nothing to do with respect for the law and citizens.”
At the time of the incident, the police defended the actions of officers. Their spokesperson, Mariusz Ciarka, stated that, at the time of her detention, the police were unaware that Grzybowska was a member of the press.
They also argued that she had violated the bodily integrity of an officer and had deliberately flashed her camera lamp in the police officer’s eyes. Grzybowska argued that she was simply doing her job by taking photos.
The actions of the police were condemned by over 600 journalists from a range of outlets. Opposition politicians and media organisations also criticised the police’s actions.
Police physically removed an opposition MP from outside a meeting being led by the prime minister and took her into a van.
The opposition has condemned the incident, likening it to Putin's Russia, but the interior minister has defended officers' actions https://t.co/l4O52ECyJ8
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 20, 2023
The International Press Institute “strongly protested” Grzybowska’s arrest. It also issued a media freedom alert, used by the organisation to register concerns about potential infringements of journalists’ rights.
Marcin Lewicki, the president of the Press Club Polska, part of the International Association of Press Clubs, announced that he had submitted a formal notification accusing the police of violating both Poland’s press law – by obstructing press criticism – and criminal law, by abusing their power.
Andrew Stroehlein, the European media director at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based NGO, shared a photo of Grzybowska being detained while showing her press card to police. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” he wrote.
Police employed force against protesters a number of times during Poland’s abortion protests, including using tear gas and batons. In one case, a left-wing MP, Magdalena Biejat, a left-wing MP, was pepper-sprayed while attempting to show her parliamentary identity card to police.
Police deployed force last night at an abortion protest, including the use of tear gas and batons by non-uniformed officers.
They say they were responding to aggression. Opposition MPs – one of whom was pepper sprayed – say police actions were unjustified https://t.co/RamCfVBBGx
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) November 19, 2020
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Main image credit: Agata Grzbowska/Facebook
Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.
