Reduta supports the Municipality of Zakrzówek in a lawsuit against Bart Staszewski
The Zakrzówek Municipality alleges that Bart Staszewski has violated the Municipality’s personal rights. The defendant is conducting a campaign entitled 'LGBT-free zones in Poland’, which consists of placing a board with the multilingual inscription 'LGBT-free zone’ under village name boards, and then publishing photos of such an illegally placed and official-looking board on his social media and on his English and Polish language portals lgbtfreezones.pl and strefywolneodlgbt.pl.
„We have decided to take legal action against Mr Staszewski because his description of our municipality as an 'LGBT-free zone’ is a lie suggesting that there is discrimination or segregation of people based on any criteria in our municipality. Nothing of the sort takes place,” says Zakrzówek Commune Head Józef Potocki. „The Zakrzówek municipality welcomes everyone willingly, tourists, investors, we have no prejudices towards anyone. The fact that Mr Staszewski attributes such negative and universally condemned characteristics to us is not only hurtful and defamatory to the Municipality authorities and the inhabitants of our local community. Mr. Staszewski carried out this action – as he himself writes on his website – because the Zakrzówek Commune Council adopted a pro-family declaration in its time, in which – like the majority of the inhabitants – it stands for traditional family values. There is no mention of an 'LGBT-free zone’ in this 'Statement’. Mr Staszewski, interpreting the document adopted by the Council, abuses freedom of speech by presenting the Zakrzówek Municipality as a place of hate speech – all the more so as he also refers on his website to the 'Atlas of Hate’ website.”
The appearance of the information and Zakrzówek as an 'LGBT-free zone’ has attracted a great deal of malicious, hectoring comments against the authorities and residents of the municipality, both on the Internet and through traditional means of communication.
„This situation has caused both the good name and the image of the municipality to be damaged. This, in turn, affects the perception of the municipality’s residents by other Polish citizens. The questions – on the phone, on the Internet, which appeared after the publication by the defendant about the alleged 'LGBT-free zone’ made it clear that people believed the false information and formed their opinion about the inhabitants of the municipality and its authorities based on it,” adds legal advisor Michał Wiliński, who, together with the attorneys of the Polish League Against Defamation, represents the municipality of Zakrzówek.
The lawsuit presents the facts – Bart Staszewski placed a fake board looking like an official road sign with the inscription 'LGBT-free zone’ in several languages including English below the road sign marking the built-up area and with the name of the locality. He posted a photo of this board on his Facebook profile, together with a pseudo-interview with the head of the municipality, Józef Potocki, in which he selectively quoted his statements. The overall tone of this Facebook post portrays the municipality as a place where people are discriminated against on the basis of their sexual preference. According to the Plaintiffs, this is a false accusation and a malicious over-interpretation of a document adopted by the municipal council as well as an attempt to restrict freedom of speech by publishing false and intimidating information.
The Polish League Against Defamation supports the municipality of Zakrzówek in its fight for its good name. Maciej Świrski, president of RDI, said:
„First of all, it must be emphatically stated that the existence of 'LGBT-free zones’ in Poland is a figment of Mr Staszewski’s imagination. As far as the municipality of Zakrzówek is concerned (but also other localities described in this way by this man), this defamatory information, the inclusion of this locality in a kind of 'list of shame’ – because this is how it is perceived outside Polish borders, where this kind of information spreads in the form of sensation – means that not only the personal rights of the municipality of Zakrzówek are violated. There is also an important aspect of the case which is often overlooked: since Bart Staszewski falsely presented the municipality as a place of discrimination (in a manner similar to that of the Nazis – after all, we are dealing here – in our opinion – with a conscious use of the analogy to the German term 'Judenfrei’), he thus struck at the important economic interests of both the municipality and its inhabitants. This kind of information about the municipality as a place of discrimination deters both tourists and investors from this locality and damages the reputation of the municipality in terms of European funding. At the moment, there is an ongoing discussion in the European Union about linking the provision of subsidies to respect for peculiarly understood 'human rights’. False and defamatory information about Zakrzówek as an 'LGBT-free zone’ may make the municipality less likely to obtain funding for its investments.”
The Polish League Against Defamation is funding the case against Bart Staszewski and is also supporting it with its know-how and media coverage. Further information on the case will be provided in the near future.
The Zakrzówek municipality has received a response to the Bart Staszewski lawsuit.
According to Maciej Świrski – president of the Polish League Against Defamation, which helps the Zakrzówek municipality – the surprising thing in the response to the lawsuit is the inclusion of the decision of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, which banned the distribution of Gazeta Polska’s famous stickers (LGBT-free zone).
„In our view, this is an important circumstance because this court held that the newspaper’s distribution of the 'LGBT-free zone’ sticker is perceived as contrary to the principle of equal treatment and is so interpreted by public opinion. This is exactly what our lawsuit is based on – we are pointing out exactly the same thing as the Warsaw court – the 'LGBT-free zone’ board attached to the name of the municipality indicates/informs that in this municipality +non-heteronormative+ people are not allowed to enter or are treated unequally, which is against the Polish legal order and portrays the inhabitants and the municipality authorities as supporters of a kind of apartheid, which is a clear defamation. In the eyes of Westerners, unfamiliar with the realities of Poland, such boards that look official indicate that the inhabitants of these localities are segregationists. And this is already being portrayed in this way in the media, in television programmes. The dimension of the damage Poland has suffered is enormous.”
We would like to remind you: the Zakrzówek commune, with the financial and legal support of the Polish League Against Defamation, has filed a lawsuit for the protection of personal rights against Mr Bart Staszewski with the Regional Court in Lublin.
The Zakrzówek Municipality alleges that Bart Staszewski has violated the Municipality’s personal rights. The defendant is conducting a campaign entitled 'LGBT-free zones in Poland’, which consists of placing a board with the multilingual inscription 'LGBT-free zone’ under village name boards, and then publishing photos with such – illegally placed, but appearing to be official – board on his social media and on his English and Polish language portals lgbtfreezones.pl and strefywolneodlgbt.pl.
The appearance of the information and Zakrzówek as an 'LGBT-free zone’ has attracted a great deal of malicious, hateful comments from the authorities and residents of the municipality, both online and through traditional means of communication.
The lawsuit states the facts – Bart Staszewski placed a fake board that looks like an official road sign with the words „LGBT-free zone” in several languages including English below the road sign marking the built-up area and with the name of the municipality. He posted a photo of this board on his Facebook profile, together with a pseudo-interview with the head of the municipality, Józef Potocki, in which he selectively quoted his statements. The overall tone of this Facebook post portrays the municipality as a place where people are discriminated against on the basis of their sexual preference. According to the Plaintiffs, this is a false accusation and a malicious over-interpretation of a document adopted by the Borough Council as well as an attempt to restrict freedom of speech by publishing false and intimidating information.
The Polish League Against Defamation supports the Zakrzówek Municipality in its fight for its good name. Maciej Świrski, President of RDI, said:
„This defamatory information, the inclusion of this locality on a kind of 'list of shame’ – because this is how it is perceived outside Poland, where this kind of information spreads in the form of sensationalism – means that not only are the personal rights of the Zakrzówek municipality violated. There is also an important aspect of the case which is often overlooked: since Bart Staszewski falsely presented the municipality as a place of discrimination (in a manner similar to that of the Nazis – after all, we are dealing here – in our opinion – with a conscious use of the analogy to the German term „Judenfrei”), he thus struck at the important economic interests of both the municipality and the inhabitants. This kind of information about the municipality as a place of discrimination deters both tourists and investors from this locality and damages the reputation of the municipality in the context of European funds. At the moment, there is an ongoing discussion in the European Union about linking the provision of subsidies to respect for peculiarly understood 'human rights’. False and defamatory information about Zakrzówek as a +LGBT-free zone+ may result in the municipality having less chance of obtaining funding for its investments.”
The Polish League Against Defamation is funding the case against Bart Staszewski and is also supporting it with its know-how and media coverage. Further information on the case will be provided in the near future.
