The Polish Government has just published a draft ‘hate speech’ bill that could see ‘perpetrators’ imprisoned for up to three years for making what the legislation describes in vague and ill-defined terms as “offensive” remarks and “insults” against transgender folk.
According to Polish media site DoRzeczy, the proposals have been brought forward by Deputy Minister of Justice Krzysztof Śmiszek, from the New Left Party, which is part of the centrist pro-European coalition Government with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition and the Third Way alliance.
Earlier this month, the Polish Ministry of Justice published a draft amendment to the penal code regarding hate speech on the website of the Government Legislation Centre. Echoing draconian hate speech legislation recently introduced in Scotland, the proposal widens the catalogue of discriminatory criteria to include disability, age, sexual orientation and gender identification.
If it becomes law, the amendment will include penalties of between three months to five years in prison for acts of violence or the threat of the use of force based on discrimination. Other penalties include up to three years in prison for ‘defamation’ based on discrimination against sexual orientation or gender identification.
Inclusion of ‘gender identification’ as a protected characteristic was declared a priority by Polish activists and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), who say LGBT groups have insufficient legal protection against ‘hate speech’.
However, opposition parties in Poland have warned against the proposals, arguing that such changes would represent a grave threat to free speech in the country, effectively forcing individuals or groups who question basic tenets of gender ideology to self-censor or face prosecution.
“We strongly oppose this,” said Confederation MP Karina Bosak. “The direct consequence of criminalizing certain words will, in fact, be the criminalization of conservative, religious, Christian views.”
Dobromir Sośnierz, another party member, highlighted concerns about the subjective nature of defining hate speech. “What the left understands by so-called hate speech, in practice, will mean speech hated by Minister Śmiszek, not necessarily speech that expresses hatred towards someone, but something that leftists dislike,” he remarked.
Paweł Szafraniec, from the conservative think-tank Ordo Iuris, echoed this concern, observing that ‘hate speech’ was not as yet defined in Poland’s penal code, and warning that any codified version of the term would inevitably be weaponised to achieve political ends.
“There is no definition of the term ‘hate speech’ in this legislation, only a listing of the categories of people it is intended to protect,” he told Brussels Signal.
“Let’s not kid ourselves,” he added. “The aim of this legislative draft is not to protect LGBT people but to provide a stick for dealing with opponents of the LGBT movement, to stop them publishing research which questions the demands being made by LGBT activists. It’s a political measure designed to shut people up and thereby to block freedom of speech.”
Since Donald Tusk’s return to power last year he has made good on his campaign promise to use an “iron broom” to sweep away the legacy of eight years of right-wing rule under the Law and Justice (PiS) Party, with his left-leaning administration particularly keen to remove from public office anyone likely to dissent from fashionable orthodoxy around federal European integration, Net Zero policies and ‘woke’ identity politics.
Just before Christmas, riot officers armed with pistols and batons surrounded the headquarters of TVP Media, Poland’s state broadcaster, as part of a government-backed purge of conservative sympathisers aligned with the previous PiS administration. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, formerly a vocal critic of PiS, has since expressed concern about the government’s takeover of public media without the approval of Poland’s media regulators, saying it “raises serious legal doubts” and may even violate Council of Europe standards.
Other PiS loyalists in the public sector have since been terminated, including Janusz Janowski, the director of the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw whose appointment in 2021 was criticised by the left-leaning Polish art world, as an attempt at placing conservative appointees who might have the effrontery to conceptualise the purpose of publicly funded culture slightly differently to them, in control of cultural institutions. For good measure, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage then replaced Poland’s official selection for the 2024 Venice Biennale, an exhibition by Ignacy Czwartos, on the basis that it had been approved by a jury chaired by Janowski. Speaking to The Art Newspaper Czwartos said that he views the cancellation of his project, a nationalistic exploration of Poland’s “tragic history” between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, as an act of “censorship”.
As if this wasn’t all already enough to ensure it remains on The Right Side of History, the new government is also now looking to control the country’s judiciary, filling the National Council of the Judiciary – a constitutional body overseeing Polish judges – with its own MPs.
