Leading national newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza is suing a noted poet for defamation. The matter went to court on Thursday morning, with the defendant, Jaroslaw Marek Rymkiewicz, calling for the case to be rejected outright.

In August 2010, the poet published an article in the ultra conservative Gazeta Polska weekly, denouncing the editors of Gazeta Wyborcza as “the spiritual heirs of the communist party of Poland”.

Rymkiewicz’s criticisms came in the wake of the national furore surrounding the so-called Defenders of the Cross.

Following the Smolensk air tragedy of 10 April 2010, a group of scouts erected a cross outside the presidential palace in tribute to the victims. When, some weeks later, it was announced that the cross would be moved, a dogged group of defenders encamped at the site.

In his initial article, Rymkiewicz said that Gazeta Wyborcza’s editors in many instances were “the sons or grandchildren” of members of the communist party, and thus “raised in a such a way that they must live in hatred of the Polish cross.”

The poet characterised the Defenders of the Cross as patriots:

“Poles, standing before it [the cross], are saying that they want to stay Poles. It’s precisely this, which now inspires such rage, such wrath, such hatred – as in the editors of Gazeta Wyborcza for example.”

Agora, the company which owns the liberal daily, are suing the poet for 10,000 zloty (2,500 euro) after the poet refused to provide an apology. The company says that hypothetical payouts for damages would be used for social purposes.

Rymkiewicz has since said that he stops short of calling all of Gazeta Wyborcza’s editors descendants of the communist party, but stands by his guns in saying that he means “only the most important ones.”

He says that the case exposes the fact that “freedom of speech” is not entirely upheld in Poland. A number of other poets, including Leszek Dlugosz and Wojciech Wencel, rallied to the defence of their colleague, decrying an infringement on freedom of expression.

Gazeta Wyborcza’s chief editor, Adam Michnik, was the son of a prominent communist, yet in the 1960s he reacted against his father’s legacy and went on to become a leading light in the Solidarity movement.

Michnik’s paper, Gazeta Wyborcza has frequently been derided by traditionalists as anti-Polish and anti-clerical. (nh/jb)

Source: PAP