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On July 6, 2010, a journalist for Program 3 of Polish Radio was reprimanded by his employer for authoring an article in Newsweek criticizing Polish Radio. Polish Radio subsequently refused to release documents explaining the basis for the reprimandbecause of “trade secrets.” In response, Helsinki Foundation has written an open letter denouncing Polish Radio’s employment policies.

The European Court’s of Human Rights judgements concerning violation of the right to a fair trial or the right to liberty of a person have not been so far the subject of profound deliberations of the authorities. As a result, judges who are the “authors” of these violations are kept in blissful ignorance of the fact that someone in the Court gave a negative opinion about their work.

Republic of Poland is actively involved in many foreign military missions, which raise the possibility of occurrence of situations where soldiers might be involved in various civil and criminal cases connected to the missions. Republic of Poland, however, has not set up a professional legal aid system for soldiers. Therefore, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights on 13 May 2010 organized a press conference revolving around this issue.

Chechen emigrants continue to leave the Chechen Republic and the Russian Federation, hoping to find protection and better conditions in other European countries and Republic of Poland is the one which receives the majority of those migrants. Moreover, as the “gateway” country that many Chechens pass through when leaving Europe, Republic of Poland has become the European state that is legally and de-facto responsible for many Chechen emigrants. 

After the conference in Interlaken the Committee of Experts on the Reform of the Court published a document called Implementation of the Interlaken Declaration. Draft Report on the Access to the Court – Fees for Applicants. In the document the Committee presented a possibility of introducing fees for applicants to the Court. Helsinki Foundation for Human Right believes it may imply a significant limitation to access to the European Court of Human Rights.

Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe declared that there are still many European Countries that need to clarify the issue of their participation in CIA extraordinary rendition program. Since among these countries the Commissioner listed Republic of Poland as one, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights filled a letter to Prosecutor General reiterating the appeal for immediate and full explanation of the issue.

In the days of 10-11 June 2010 a two-day training for lawyers on the application of the European Convention of Human Rights in the proceedings before national courts and European Court of Human Rights took place in the premises of the District Chamber of Legal Advisers in Warsaw. The seminar was the last one of the set of training courses organized by the National Chamber of Legal Advisers and Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

On the 15th June 2010, the District Court in Cracow dismissed a lawsuit against Mr. Paweł Wodniak – journalist of the portal “Fakty Oświęcim” for violation of personal interest. The Court ruled that a news report that merely mentions an individual’s involvement in a criminal proceeding does not constitute a violation of press laws, the rule of innocence, or journalism ethics.

27 May 2010 the District Court of Warsaw passed a verdict in the case regarding the problem of providing safety to the so-called whistleblowers. It upheld the sentence passed by the lower court and did not reinstated to work Piotr Sułek, ex-editor-in-chief of the weekly “Post Office”. The Court did indeed agree that the notice of leave was unjustified, but decided to grant Piotr Sułek compensation in the form of one pay in addition to the return of the costs of the proceeding.