Persecuting Prof. W. Roszkowski - CMWP SDP included monitoring of the case

In connection with the suit for the protection of individual property brought by Marika Mieszczankowska, Joanna Mieszczankowska and Kamil Mieszczankowski against prof. Wojciech Roszkowski and Wydawnictwo Biały Kruk sp. z o.o., the SDP Press Freedom Monitoring Centre informs that it covered this case with monitoring in respect of respect of human rights and citizens' freedom of expression. In the opinion of CMWP in this proceeding there is simply a threat of violation of the rights of prof. Wojciech Roszkowski, as well as of the suspect Publishing House. The first proceeding in this case is scheduled to take place on 14 November in the territory Court in Krakow.

The case concerns the erroneous explanation of a fragment of the textbook past and Present by Prof. Wojciech Roszkowski. The media recorded in the audience the image of the publication, as criticizing the method of fertilising "in-vitro", while the words about "in-vitro" did not fall into the content of the publication. Nevertheless, both prof. Roszkowski and the publisher of the "History and the Present" manual, or the release of "White Crow", became a organization to at least a fewer individual property protection proceedings conducted by private individuals.

CMWP SDP accepts the situation with the highest concern. It is hard to respect as a correct situation in which a crucial part of the opinion-making press titles have entered into, or even straight carried out, a media attack against the author of the textbook and the publishing house, showing ignorance of the content subject to criticism of the text (or trying to interpret it without knowing the essence of things) and thus not retaining the required peculiar care. In this way, a large proportion of journalists and their media centres have shown that they are not capable of nonsubjective analysis or factual criticism. In the opinion of CMWP SDP, specified actions against the publisher and author pose a serious threat to freedom of expression. In this case, we are dealing with respective related manipulation techniques, the eventual goal of which is, it seems, stigmatisation of the publishing home and the author, and the introduction of their “stuck” with the aid of a judicial machine. As a consequence of these actions, the freezing effect is to be the situation in which the authors of textbooks will fear criticism or direct assessment of specified social phenomena as the in vitro procedure. This is all the more dangerous as it leads to informal but very strong censorship and self-censorship. Experiences from the US and Western European countries indicate that specified practices tend to grow by covering more and more topics, which are explicitly banned or stigmatized in a critical context, specified as abortion, mass immigration, euthanasia, LGBT etc.

We are judging this powerfully negatively, due to the fact that specified a state of affairs causes that in countries that boast freedom of speech and have a crucial number of regulations and traditions to defend it, this freedom becomes a regulated good, which is granted to influential stakeholders, especially the media. The events concerning the "HiT" guide show that this phenomenon besides occurs in Poland.

The SDP Press Freedom Monitoring Centre has been operating since 1996 as an organizational cell of the Association of Polish Journalists, established to defend freedom of expression in accordance with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Within the scope of its tasks, the CMWP shall, inter alia, monitor respect for human rights and the citizen in this respect, as well as, in justified cases, undertake legal interventions and supply opinions as amicus curiae by joining as an observer the processes concerning journalists and the media, peculiarly in situations where journalists' rights to their independency and freedom of publication are violated. However, their work must be based on respect for professional ethics and journalistic professionalism.

Therefore, the CMWP SDP has covered this case with its monitoring and announces akin monitoring of another cases against Prof. Wojciech Roszkowski and the publishing home "White Raven" defending their right to freedom of expression, including technological ones.

for:

https://cmwp.sdp.pl/