Head of Polish conservative group loses appeal against defamation conviction for anti-LGBT vans

The head of a conservative group responsible for a campaign in which vans covered in slogans linking LGBT people to paedophilia has been handed a binding final conviction for defamation.

The court, which called the slogans displayed on the vans “hate speech”, found that the right to protection against defamation applies not only to specific individuals but also to groups of individuals with a specific characteristic.

Mariusz Dzierżawski, president of Foundation Pro – Right To Life (Fundacja Pro – Prawo Do Życia), was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 hours of community service per month for a year, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

He must also apologise to the individual plaintiffs and the Tolerado association, an LGBT rights group, that brought the case before the court. Additionally, he was ordered to pay a contribution of 15,000 zloty (€3,340) to a charity and to cover court costs.

The penalty was kept the same as that awarded by a court last year in the first instance, against which Dzierżawski had appealed. However, two other members of his organisation were acquitted after the court found that they were not involved in organising and coordinating the campaign.

Foundation Pro – Right To Life has mounted a long-running campaign it calls “Stop Paedophilia”, in which it claims that the “LGBT lobby” wants to use sex education lessons in schools to “sexualise” children.

The campaign is promoted by vans, posters and other materials showing crossed-out rainbow flags alongside various slogans claiming links between the LGBT community and sexual abuse of children.

Although activists and some local authorities have sought to stop such displays, they have been hindered by the fact that Poland’s hate crime laws do not explicitly cover sexual orientation or gender identity.

In 2020, one judge rejected a case against Fundacja Pro, arguing that its material was “informative and educational”. Last year, a Polish court acquitted a driver of one of the vans used in the campaign, finding that the messages displayed on his vans were “true”.

However, this week, the provincial court in Gdańsk found that the campaign, which took place in the city in 2019-21, was based on deceitful claims that are not supported by scientific research. According to the court, this constituted a violation of freedom of expression and was, in fact, a manifestation of hate speech.

“In the court’s view, there is no sound scientific research to support the theses propounded by the accused. The court concluded that they were meant to offend, they were meant to lead to social divisions and antagonism,” judge Mariusz Kazimierczak said in announcing the verdict, quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza.

“These words led to stigmatisation, aggression, a desire to eliminate these people from society, and therefore constituted an example of hate speech that exceeded the limits of acceptable criticism or freedom of expression,” the judge added.

The court also rejected the arguments of Dzierżawski’s defence lawyers, from conservative legal group Ordo Iuris, that defamation occurs only when one or several people defined by name are defamed, whereas it cannot be considered defamation if a whole group of unspecified people are offended.

“Such a view in the court’s view is unjustified, as it would, in fact, make the legal protection of persons illusory,” said Kazimierczak. “The accused’s communication concerns not some abstract entity, but groups of actually existing, living persons.”

“In the court’s view, this is a group strictly defined by specific characteristics, and it is irrelevant here that the specific number of members of this group cannot be determined,” continued the judge, adding it is a group that very many people consider themselves a part of.

“And if a certain thesis applies to all members of this group, in the opinion of the district court, each of them can feel affected, and each of them can claim the protection of their rights,” he concluded.

While the ruling was welcomed by Tolerado, it was condemned by Fundacja Pro, who argued that its president had been “virtually deprived of the possibility to defend himself during the trial”.

“The court said that the burden of proving [the truthfulness of] the content presented by the foundation lay with [Dzierżawski], yet the judge made no reference at all to the conclusions of serious scientific articles presented in writing, which confirmed the theses propounded during the campaign,” said the foundation.

In fact, in justifying the sentence, the court referred to the reports of Poland’s state commission against paedophilia as well as the opinions of the Polish Sexological Society, indicating that the conclusions of these institutions contradict those proclaimed by the accused.

Poland has for the last four years been ranked as the worst country in the EU for LGBT people amid a concerted anti-LGBT campaign led by the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government.

However, the new, more liberal coalition that replaced PiS in power last month has pledged to improve LGBT rights, including by amending the penal code so that inciting hatred on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is treated as crime.

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Main image credit: Maciek Jazwiecki / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.