{"id":316083,"date":"2021-09-17T17:25:24","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T17:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpj.org\/?p=132587"},"modified":"2021-09-17T17:25:24","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T17:25:24","slug":"polish-authorities-charge-2-journalists-with-violating-state-of-emergency-in-coverage-of-belarus-border-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/09\/17\/polish-authorities-charge-2-journalists-with-violating-state-of-emergency-in-coverage-of-belarus-border-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish authorities charge 2 journalists with violating state of emergency in coverage of Belarus border area"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Berlin, September 17, 2021 \u2013 Polish authorities should drop all criminal charges filed against a reporting team from the local news website Onet<\/em>, and ensure that members of the press can cover refugees and other sensitive issues without fear of prosecution, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 3, police in Hajn\u00f3wka, a Polish town near the border with Belarus, summoned Onet<\/em> reporter Bart\u0142omiej Bublewicz and a camera operator for the website, who did not want their name revealed, to a local police station, according to a report<\/a> by Onet<\/em> and Bublewicz, who communicated with CPJ via email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police interrogated both journalists about a report<\/a> they had published earlier that day covering refugee movements at the border, and charged them with violating a state of emergency decree governing the border region by reporting from that area and taking pictures and video of border infrastructure, according to those sources. Authorities released them after about 30 minutes, according to Bublewicz and that Onet <\/em>report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 2, Polish authorities passed a 30-day state of emergency decree covering the border area with Belarus, which bars journalists from reporting from the area, according to news<\/a> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolish authorities must immediately drop all charges against Bart\u0142omiej Bublewicz and an Onet<\/em> camera operator, who were simply doing their jobs covering newsworthy events near the country\u2019s border with Belarus,\u201d said Gulnoza Said, CPJ\u2019s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. \u201cAuthorities must allow reporters to cover refugee movements freely. This level of obstruction only implies that the Polish authorities have something to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the interrogation, police asked to search the journalists\u2019 car and examine their phones and camera memory card, but Bublewicz said that he and his colleague refused those requests. He added that when police first summoned him, he thought they were requesting an informal talk so did not have a lawyer present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If convicted of violating the state of emergency, each journalist could face a prison sentence of up to 30 days or a fine of up to 5,000 Polish z\u0142oty (US$1300 USD), Bublewicz said. He said that no court date for their case has been set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jakub Kud\u0142a, a lawyer for Onet<\/em> parent company RASP, told Onet <\/em>in an interview<\/a> that the charges are baseless, saying that the journalists were simply doing their jobs. He added that the videos they published did not illegally show any border infrastructure, as the journalists did not reach the border itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have the impression that the charges in this case are only intended to intimidate and obstruct the work of journalists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 14, 30 newsrooms in Poland issued a joint appeal to the government to allow journalists to work freely in the border zone, calling emergency decree \u201ca manifestation of unlawful press restrictions in the work of journalists and suppression of press criticism,\u201d according to reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CPJ emailed the Polish police office in Bia\u0142ystok, which oversees Hajn\u00f3wka, but did not immediately receive any reply.<\/p>\n\n


\r\nThis content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a> and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.
<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Berlin, September 17, 2021 \u2013 Polish authorities should drop all criminal charges filed against a reporting team from the local news website Onet, and ensure that members of the press can cover refugees and other sensitive issues without fear of prosecution, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On September 3, police in Hajn\u00f3wka, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5097,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35468,25484,22127,8340,35469,238,27150,35028],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5097"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316084,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316083\/revisions\/316084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}