Kochański and Partners Win a Case for Investigative Journalist Wojciech Cieśla against Przedsiębiorstwo Farmaceutyczne LEK-AM sp. z o.o.
Newsweek’s investigative journalist Wojciech Cieśla was accused of defamation of character of pharmaceutical company Przedsiębiorstwo Farmaceutyczne LEK-AM sp. z o. o. in the press articles titled “Afera Lek-Am, czyli recepta na kasę” and “Łapiński, Lek-Am i uzbecka insulina” published in Newsweek Polska weekly magazine and on newsweek.pl website. On 10 June 2016, the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów in Warsaw acquitted Wojciech Cieśla on all charges.
In the course of the proceedings, the defense attorneys of the journalist argued that the articles were published to protect an important public interest, supervise the mechanisms applied in the pharmaceutical company and verify whether the use of public funds by the pharmaceutical company was correct.
The District Court agreed with the arguments of the defense. In an oral statement of reasons, the Court confirmed that the publication served an important social purpose. The judgment is not final.
