Polish journalists criticizing the government could face jail.

Prominent polish lawyer cooperating with Tusk government - Roman Giertych publicly said in TV conversation with with a lawyer representing "Wprost" weekly magazine Jacek Kondracki, that the persons making the disclosure of the conversations (Sikorski and Rostowski) recorded using secret wiretaps - and thus also the journalists of the weekly magazine "Wprost" could committed an offense referred to art. 267 § 4 of the Polish Criminal Code - possibly even face a jail time and closing of „Wprost” magazine.

Is he right? Let's see:

To determine, if a government lawyer is correct we must first go back to art. 267 § 1 of the Criminal Code reads as follows:

We also need to look at the art. 267 § 3 of the Criminal Code:

The same penalty shall be,who in order to obtain information which is not authorized, assumes or uses tapping,(...)

And finally, the most important in the context of the potential criminal liability of journalists of the weekly "Wprost" provision of this paragraph:

art. 267 § 4 states that:

The same punishment shall be imposed on anyone, who disclose the information obtained in the manner specified in § 1-3 to any other person.

And now very important fact - according to publicized by the editor Michal Majewski from “Wprost ” magazine, prosecutor order "to request for things for criminal proceedings" from the previous week (which was the reason for action of Internal Security Agency in “Wprost” headquarters last week) – contain infromation, that criminal proceedings in “tape scandal” are conducted on the basis ofart. 267 § 3 and § 4 of Polish Criminal Code - this mean, that the prosecutor may prosecute on the basis of art. 267 § 4 of the Criminal Code reporters of „Wprost”, accusing them of "disclosure to another person of the information coming from the illegal tape."

From the formal point of view, govermental lawyer is right. The application of the art. 267 § 4 of the Criminal Code is excluded only, when - for example - there is a talk between two persons and one of those persons is taping hisinterlocutor(even when other person don't agree ), because in this example taped information wasdestined for this person.

In case of “Wprost tapes” govermental officials were taped by third party, so taped informations were not intendet for person making tapes – and from this reason prosecuting of journaliston the basis of art. 267 § 4 of the Criminal Code has ground in polish criminal law (similar case to british “News International” taping scandal).

Although I personally agree with the statements, that the public opinion has gained useful information from some publicized secret tapes, this does not mean an automatic exclusion from criminal responsibility of journalists of the weekly magzine "Wprost" in polish law. According to my estimation, the only chance to avoid the criminal responsibility of journalists is a reference to

Art. 1 § 2 of the Polish Criminal Code, which states that:

A prohibited act whose social consequences is insignificant shall not constitute an offence.

But this would be the role of newly appointed lawyer representing “Wprost” magazine.