OSCE media freedom representative asks Polish President to pardon imprisoned journalist

VIENNA, 18 January 2006 - Miklos Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, has asked the President of Poland to pardon imprisoned journalist Andrzej Marek.

Marek, the Editor-in-Chief of the regional weekly Wiesci Polickie, was sent to jail on 17 January in Szczecin for libelling a local official.

In a letter to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media said that the imprisonment could have serious consequences for freedom of the media in Poland.

"You now have the possibility to pardon Mr. Marek. By doing so, your High Office could help ensure that no legal precedent for the future could be constituted in Poland by this punishment," wrote Miklos Haraszti.

The OSCE Representative also stressed the need to start phasing out all punitive laws in Poland that hinder the free flow of information and an uninhibited debate of public issues.

Haraszti asked the Polish Government to impose a moratorium on punitive libel and defamation provisions, or at least on prison sentences in these cases, and to start the process of decriminalization of the country's relevant legislation.

Several countries in the OSCE region have already decriminalized libel and defamation, placing the legal remedy for these offences fully into the domain of civil law.