Polish group sues Argentine paper under new Holocaust law

[sandensea]

A Polish campaign group is suing an Argentine newspaper it says breached a new law that makes it a criminal offence to suggest Poland was complicit in the Holocaust.

In what appeared to be the first legal action under the so-called Holocaust law, just hours after it took effect, the Polish League Against Defamation said it filed a complaint against Argentina's leading progressive daily, Página/12.

The dispute refers to a December 18, 2017, article by Federico Pavlovsky on the Jedwabne pogrom, ‘Familiar Faces’.

The 1941 incident, in which Polish locals colluded with Nazi occupiers, resulted in the massacre of at least 340 Jews.

A minister from Poland’s conservative government applauded the move to invoke the law which Warsaw says will protect it from slander - but which the United States and Israel said would suppress authentic historic research and free speech.

The League, a non-governmental group that campaigns to protect Poland’s historical reputation abroad, said that Página/12 used a photograph of Polish ‘doomed soldiers’ who fought against communists after the war to illustrate an article on the Jedwabne pogrom.

The ruling Law and Justice party has praised the ‘doomed soldiers’. While many are seen as national heroes in the struggle against Soviet domination, some led killings of Jews, Belarusians and other minorities.

Página/12 noted Saturday evening that “this newspaper did not receive any legal communication and only learned of the information through international news agency reports.”

“If successful, this attempt at international censorship could threaten freedom of expression worldwide,” the article read.

At: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-poland/polish-group-sues-argentine-paper-under-new-holocaust-law-idUSKCN1GF0RF

Link to Pavlovsky's article (in English): https://www.pagina12.com.ar/99401-familiar-faces

[marybourg]

1. They might have a slight jurisdiction problem. nt

[sandensea]

2. True.

Although my guess is that they may not just be doing this on a lark.

Argentina's right-wing president, Mauricio Macri, is known for using politicized trials against opponents - including the media - and the current far-right Polish government must be counting on him to lean on the Argentine judiciary to give the Polish claim standing.

Página/12, you see, has made an enemy of by publishing exposés on a number of corruption/tax evasion scandals related to Macri, his family, inner circle, or officials (the latter two groups are usually synonymous) - and Macri has a very Trumpian idea of governance.

Coincidentally, they've been friends for 35 years or so. Small world.