NSS: Poland must repeal ‘blasphemy law’ after pop star vindicated

Posted: Fri, 16th Sep 2022

NSS: Poland must repeal ‘blasphemy law’ after pop star vindicated

The National Secular Society has urged Poland to repeal its 'blasphemy law' after an international court ruled a pop star's human rights were breached.

Yesterday the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled the Polish government violated the right to free speech by convicting and fining Dorota Rabczewska (pictured), known by the stage name 'Doda', for 'insulting Christianity' in an interview.

The court ordered Poland to pay Doda a settlement of 10,000 euros (£8,680).

In 2009, Doda said during an interview for a news website that while she believes in a "higher power", she does not believe in the Bible.

She said she was more convinced by scientific discoveries like the existence of dinosaurs, and not by "the writings of someone wasted from drinking wine and smoking some weed".

The interview prompted complaints from two individuals to a public prosecutor that she had broken Article 196 of Poland's criminal code. This prohibits offending "religious feelings" by "publicly insulting an object of religious worship".

Article 196: Poland's 'blasphemy law'

Doda was convicted in 2012 by the Warsaw District Court and fined the equivalent of approximately £930.

A subsequent complaint to Poland's Constitutional Court that Article 196 violates the constitutional rights to freedom of expression and equal treatment of the nonreligious was dismissed.

Doda took the case to the ECtHR in Strasbourg in 2013, arguing that Poland had breached Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of expression.

She added that the sanction imposed on her – a criminal conviction and a fine fifty times the minimum provided by law – had been disproportionately severe. She was supported by UK-based human rights group Article 19.

The Polish government argued Doda "could easily have known that her statement could lead to prosecution as 90% of the population in Poland was Catholic" and that religious people "had a right not to be insulted on the grounds of their beliefs".

The government was backed by Ordo Iuris, an ultraconservative Polish Catholic lobby group, which made a third-party submission against Doda.

ECtHR: Religious 'cannot expect to be exempt from criticism'

The ECtHR found that Doda's conviction had violated Article 10.

It said freedom of expression "constitutes one of the essential foundations of a democratic society and one of the basic conditions for its progress and for each individual's self-fulfilment".

It said those who choose to exercise their religious freedom cannot "expect to be exempt from criticism" and "must tolerate and accept the denial by others of their religious beliefs and even the propagation by others of doctrines hostile to their faith".

The court noted that Article 196 of Poland's criminal code "incriminates all behaviour that is likely to hurt religious feelings".

One of the seven judges dissented from the ruling. Polish national Judge Wojtyczek argued "freedom from insults affecting the religious feelings of the believers" is an "important element" of freedom of religion and conscience.

Poland has recently experienced a rise of Catholic nationalism under the traditionalist Law and Justice party, contributing to its near total ban on abortion last year.

On Saturday Poland's Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek said: "Poland will either be Christian or it will not exist".

NSS: 'Religious feelings cannot trump free speech'

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "We welcome the ruling, which clarify that religious feelings cannot trump the fundamental human right to freedom of expression.

"Doda should never have been convicted in the first place. Poland must now respond to the court's findings by repealing Article 196 of its criminal code, which is nothing more than a blasphemy law in practice.

"Blasphemy laws, whatever their guise, are an affront to human rights and human dignity. They have no place in any democracy."

Image: Fryta 73, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped to fit)

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