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A joint statement by the Helsinki Committee in Poland and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights warns that the draft law “on proceedings against mentally disturbed persons who pose threat to life, health or sexual liberty of others” may infringe human rights protection standards.

The Court of Appeal in Warsaw has dismissed the appeal of the defendant, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), concerning the protection of personal rights of the claimant, journalist Bogdan Wróblewski (case file number I ACa 1002/12). The Court reaffirmed the earlier ruling by the Regional Court which had decided to maintain the claim.

The winners of third edition of the Best Human Rights MA thesis contest organised by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights have been announced. The board of the contest, chaired by Professor Ewa Łętowska, decided to grant three awards and one special prize.

Dominika Bychawska-Siniarska, director of the Observatory of Media Freedom in Poland has been awarded the Article 54 Journalists’ Prize by the Polish Journalists Association. Article 54 of Poland’s Constitution stipulates that “The freedom to express opinions, to acquire and to disseminate information shall be ensured to everyone. Preventive censorship of the means of social communication and the licensing of the press shall be prohibited”.

The Ministry of Justice informed HFHR that Minister Jarosław Gowin, while commenting on the allegations against Zbigniew Siemiątkowski in the investigation of secret CIA prisons in Poland in a radio interview, based his comments exclusively on his assumptions as to the possible course of the proceedings.

For the tenth time, the Pro Bono Lawyer Award has been given by the Legal Clinics Foundation and the Rzeczpospolita daily. During the award-giving gala of 17 April 2013, Rzeczpospolita also bestowed diplomas for individuals and firms featured in the eleventh edition of the law offices ranking.

Upon the Helsinki Foundation’s application for judicial review, the Provincial Administrative Court has reversed the decisions of the Chief Commissioner of the Police who refused to answer the HFHR’s original question about Police statistics on the use of GPS as a covert investigative method. At the same time, the Court obliged the Chief Commissioner to give an answer to this question.

On Thursday, 16 April 2013, the Warsaw’s Court of Appeal heard the appeal in the personal interests infringement case brought by Bogdan Wróblewski, a journalist with Gazeta Wyborcza, against the Head of the Central Anticorruption Bureau. The claimant, now the appellee, alleged that the CAB had unlawfully acquired journalist’s telecommunication data, including his phone records, for a period of six months in the years 2005–2007. The first-instance court ruled for Mr Wróblewski.

The HFHR applied to the Minister of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy, stressing the need to elaborate provisions of the Tenant Protection Act. Under current regulations, a debtor who raises objections as to the standard of housing offered to them by municipal authorities faces a risk of being evicted into the streets.