Kochański Zięba Rąpała & Partners in defense of the freedom of speech on the Internet

Monday, 09 January 2012 11:19

We are pleased to announce that thanks to Anna Cichońska (Advocate and Partner) and Rafał Zięba (Advocate and Senior Partner) the Regional Court in Warsaw, III Civil Division, dismissed all claims made by Roman Giertych concerning the protection of personal rights, with regard to web users' comments placed below an article published on the fakt.pl webpage, and directed against Ringier Axel Springer Polska (RASP) as the publisher of the fakt.pl webpage. The sentence is not legally binding.

The court of first instance fully agreed with the legal argumentation of the RASP representatives, who consistently submitted that the issue of the proceedings was to settle whether RASP as a so-called internet mediator was responsible for somebody else's content on the Internet (i.e. comments of web users below articles). In current jurisdiction practice, courts often omit regulations regarding those issues in detail, i.e. Act on Rendering Electronic Services.

The RASP representatives successfully argued that allowing web users to comment on particular articles, constituted a sign of freedom of speech on the Internet, and that the responsibility for web users' comments cannot be ascribed to RASP, if it did not know about comments or statements violating the law. RASP obtained this knowledge just after receiving a copy of the response to the suit and, acting in accordance with the legal provisions on rendering electronic services, immediately banned access to those comments, therefore releasing themselves from responsibility for comments violating the personal rights of Roman Giertych.

Roman Giertych takes the position that with regard to the issue of admins' responsibility for web users' records, press law should be applied, and comments should be treated as "letters to the editor".

The case was widely reported in the media because of its unprecedented character, and the fact of it being hyped by Roman Giertych. Roman Giertych's demands were similar to the representative of Radosław Sikorski in the case of comments published on the fakt.pl webpage and in the internet issue of "Puls Biznesu".