Polskie Radio is to issue an apology to the Open Dialogue Foundation for damaging its reputation and to pay compensation of PLN 200,000 by virtue of an order issued by the Regional Court in Warsaw, the ODF announced on Wednesday. The broadcaster will decide how to proceed after receiving the grounds for the judgement.
The judgement was issued on 4 December 2024 in a lawsuit concerning the violation of personal rights filed by the Foundation in 2019 and is not yet final.
Based on the copy of the court ruling that the ODF shared with the Polish Press Agency, Polskie Radio is to publish a series of letters of apology on its online platforms, including foreign-language sites operated abroad. In addition, the Regional Court in Warsaw obliged Polskie Radio to pay compensation of PLN 200,000 in favour of the Open Dialogue Foundation.
The wording of the apology letter ordered by the Court is to be as follows: “Polskie Radio SA domiciled in Warsaw hereby extends its apologies to Ms Lyudmyla Kozlovska for violating her personal rights, including, in particular, her dignity and good name, and to the Open Dialogue Foundation domiciled in Warsaw for violating its personal rights, including its good name, reputation and good standing, as well as the right to protect its image in the form of a distinctive logo, by disseminating harmful, misleading and false information in numerous publications posted on its websites. This statement has been issued in connection with a lost court case.”
“The Foundation and its management i.e. Lyudmyla Kozlovska and Bartosz Kramek, pointed to a series of deliberate attacks on their reputation on the part of Polskie Radio. This campaign was based on disinformation and dubious sources, and included, inter alia, allegations of them having ties with Russia, benefitting from suspicious financing, being engaged in money laundering, and acting to the detriment of the Polish national interest. Numerous politicians from the Law and Justice Party (PiS) took part in this campaign, appearing as guests on the radio,” the Open Dialogue Foundation emphasises in its statement.
The ODF stresses that such slanderous comments were “particularly damaging”, as they were spread in many languages and heavily affected the Foundation’s international operations.
“Our case demonstrates how easy it is for media that have been politicised and subordinated to those in power to destroy human lives. In addition to the reputational damage, we have also been facing problems with banks and our donors. The compensation will not make up for such damage. We have won the case, but the battle was extremely long and expensive. Neither Polish nor EU laws provide for effective mechanisms to protect one’s reputation. This has to change,” said Lyudmyla Kozlovska, who was quoted in the statement, appearing as a plaintiff together with the Open Dialogue Foundation, Bartosz Kramek and Silk Road Biuro Analiz i Informacji Sp. z o.o.
The provided statement highlights that “the judgement is not yet final”.
Piotr Daniluk, the spokesperson for Polskie Radio, told the Polish Press Agency that Polskie Radio had filed a request for a written substantiation of the Court’s judgement. “After reviewing its content and the main reasons for the decision, we will decide on the possible further procedural steps,” he added.
The Open Dialogue Foundation is committed to the defence of human rights, rule of law and democracy, and provides humanitarian aid to Ukraine. During the Law and Justice’s regime, Bartosz Kramek and Lyudmyla Kozlovska, who are the ODF managers (and a married couple) expressed their criticism of the actions of the authorities of the time, including those in the area of the judiciary system, thereby entering into conflict with those in power and the affiliated media.
In 2018, Lyudmyla Kozlovska was entered on the Schengen Information System by the head of the Internal Security Agency, and her name was marked with a red alert. The activist, being a holder of a Ukrainian passport, was banned from entry into the majority of UE Member States, including Poland. However, in mid-2024, the Internal Security Agency stated that there were no indications that her stay would threaten the security of our country, and Kozlovska was eventually removed from the list of undesirable persons in Poland.
The management of the Open Dialogue Foundation have filed numerous lawsuits concerning the violation of personal rights against politicians, editorial offices and journalists, the case involving Polish Radio being just one of them.
“The Foundation and its representatives had been already successful in a number of similar lawsuits brought against many politicians representing the Law and Justice, and the media that supported them, such as Maciej Wąsik, Joachim Brudziński, Tomasz Sakiewicz (twice), Dominik Tarczyński, Patryk Jaki, Witold Waszczykowski and TVP,” the Foundation stated.
The basis for the legal claim was footage published by Polskie Radio including, among other things, the allegation that the Foundation’s activities serve merely as a cover for espionage and hostile intelligence.The polskieradio24.pl online service referred to information published by radiozagranica.pl, which reported that “Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation may serve as an example of a so-called sleeper agent – that is, a previously recruited operative of a foreign intelligence services, in this case the Kremlin. Kozlovska has recently been banned from entering Poland and the Schengen area.” They also quoted reports published by The Sunday Times, among others, which wrote about “allegations by the Moldovan parliamentary committee against the Open Dialogue Foundation concerning the accepting of GBP 1.5 million from Scottish dummy companies in exchange for lobbying for oligarchs”. (Polish Press Agency)
Source: pap.pl
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