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Poland’s controversial Holocaust law entered into force on 1 March 2018. Under the new law, it is a punishable offence to accuse the Polish nation or the Polish State of being responsible for or complicit in the crimes committed by the Nazi regime. Whereas the Polish Government has said that the law is only designed to punish manifestly false phrases such as ‘Polish death camps’, its opponents doubt this is the case, fearing that the government could use it to silence political opponents. The law has faced particular criticism in Israel, where it has been suggested that it restricts the freedom...

A recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) confirms that journalists who are found guilty of a criminal offence during newsgathering activities cannot invoke robust protection based on their rights to freedom of expression and information, as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Following the decisions in the cases of Diamant Salihu and others v. Sweden (IRIS 2016-8/1), Brambilla and others v. Italy (IRIS 2016-9/1) and Boris Erdtmann v. Germany (IRIS 2016-9/1), the Court on this occasion dismissed a complaint lodged by an undercover television...

Poland’s National Broadcasting Council (Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji - KRRiT) has refuted concerns expressed by the US State Department in relation to a fine imposed against the broadcaster TVN. TVN is owned by the American company Scripps Networks Interactive, which is soon to be taken over by Discovery Communications. The disagreement follows the KRRiT’s decision to fine TVN around EUR 352 000 for allegedly biased and distorted reporting on demonstrations outside the Polish Parliament. The US State Department expressed concern about how the fine might affect the Polish media landscape....

On 28 November 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its judgment in MAC TV s.r.o. v. Slovakia, which concerned the fining of a broadcaster over a television programme’s commentary on the death of the late President of Poland. The case involved MAC TV, which operates two private television channels, and broadcasts the television programme “JOJ PLUS”. During an episode of the programme broadcast in April 2010, following the fatal plane crash in which the President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, had been travelling, a commentary was delivered entitled “Compassion in Accordance with...

Broadcaster TVN has announced plans to take legal action to recover taxes that it was forced to pay in Poland in relation to the sale of its DTH platform. A DTH (‘direct-to-home’) platform is a method of receiving satellite television and was used by TVN to broadcast various channels until it sold its platform in 2012. TVN paid PLN 110 million (around EUR 26 million) in tax, under protest. At the same time, both TVN and Scripps Networks Interactive, which had since acquired TVN, said that they “strongly disagreed” with the decision of the tax authority concerned and would file an appeal with the...