Garšva’s information against “Kurier” is unfounded

After few months of studying another complaint against “Kurier Wileński” made by the president of “Vilniji” Kazimieras Garšva, the journalism ethics inspector Zita Zamžickienė considered Garšva’s accusation unfounded.

It is probably the first time (we lost count of all the informations against our daily) that we managed to defend ourselves against hypocrisy and dreamed-up accusations. Garšva complains almost about every single material that describes his anti-Polish actions and recent involvement in “Sąjūdis” Movement. His last accusation referred to the review material about 25th anniversary of formerly legendary independence movement.

In the article titled “Sąjūdis – legend transformation” we raised the subject of changes in the character of the organisation which, in our opinion, transformed from a gathering integrating different circles and nationalities into a gathering of right-wing nationalist groups and political activists.

At the beginning of August we informed our readers about another attack from Garšva. In his information against our daily he accused us of subversive activities and demanded the punishment for alleged disinformation and slander. In his letter which was full of hate, unfounded accusations, slanders and even lies, Garšva accused “Kurier” of antinational and agency actions. He negated our right to represent an opinion of our Readers – Poles.

This time, thanks to the selfless help of the European Foundation of Human Rights we managed to defend ourselves against the attack of Garšva. In reply to his accusations, together we proved that his habitual complaints are untrue. We defended our right to freedom of speech, the right to voice an opinion and to stand up for the rights and interests of Poles in Lithuania. We are not expecting that this defeat will discourage Garšva from another attacks on our daily but we are ready to resist it.

On behalf of the Editorial Office and Readers of “Kurier”we would like to thank the European Foundation of Human Rights for legal support in preparing the justification of our stand on the complain. We remind you that “Kurier”was repeatedly punished for “siring up discord”, e.g. when we published fragments of Krzysztof Buchowski’s work titled “Litwomani i polonizatorzy. Mity, wzajemne postrzeganie i stereotypy w stosunkach polsko-litewskich w pierwszej połowie XX wieku”.

Later this work was published in Lithuanian what only proves the hypocrisy of denunciators and institution that punished us.

For “Kurier” every complain is not only a matter of humiliation and wasting time on replying to all unfounded denunciations but also a huge financial loss. Every punishment, according to the law, eliminates the possibility of getting financial support from state found. We thinkt that this is the actual reason of denunciators – to deprive “Kurier” of possibility of getting financial assets to run the only Polish daily in Lithuania.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2013/11/29/donos-garsvy-na-kurier-jest-bezpodstawny/

Tłumaczenie by Sara Howicka w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Sara Howicka within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.