Ordo Iuris sues Radosław Sikorski. NaTemat.pl publishes correction of false information

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Suits against Radosław Sikorski, politician, and Dorota Brejza, attorney, were filed with the courts. The reasons for the intervention are untrue defamatory entries about the Ordo Iuris Institute on social media. Radosław Sikorski, a Member of the European Parliament, has accused the Institute of alleged support for “LGBT ideology-free zones”, which actually do not exist. The Institute will demand that the defendants apologise and pay compensation for social purposes. Such interventions in similar cases have already brought effects. The NaTemat.pl portal added a correction to the press material containing false information about the Institute.

Radosław Sikorski commented on Twitter on the action undertaken by the Institute aimed at protecting the good reputation of local governments that were defamed by LGBT political activists. The politician referred to the intervention by Ordo Iuris defending constitutional rules as support for “communes establishing «LGBT ideology-free zones»”. In reality, no local government in Poland has established such a zone. Some local government units adopted resolutions expressing their objection to the political “LGBT ideology”, and the Local Government Charter of the Rights of the Family, prepared by Ordo Iuris and a number of other social organisations, includes no references to the issue of lifestyle or sexual preferences, constituting only the guarantee of local authorities’ compliance with the rights granted to families in the Constitution. Local governments have repeatedly indicated the untrue character of statements about the zones allegedly discriminating against people with different sexual dispositions. Many of them have also taken specific legal actions in order to protect their personal rights.

A separate action was filed against Dorota Brejza. The lawyer, in an entry on Facebook, claimed that Ordo Iuris was striving to amend the law in order to “limit civil liberties”. Another slander was formulated in such a way as to express that the Institute would stand behind an “attempt to amend the Act on combating domestic violence, aimed at making it even more difficult for victims to assert their rights”. Moreover, Dorota Brejza stated that Ordo Iuris wanted to “prohibit divorces”. All of these statements were previously denied by the Foundation’s representatives.

Actions undertaken in order to defend the good reputation of Ordo Iuris have been bringing results. The NaTemat.pl portal placed corrections concerning the Institute under these two interviews. The portal accepted the legitimacy of claims that statements contained in these interviews were untrue. The interviews published were carried out with a journalist — Ben Hunt, the BBC’s “LGBT correspondent” — who claimed that Ordo Iuris lawyers had cancelled a meeting with him and with Klementyna Suchanow, a left-wing activist, who presented obviously false information about the Institute.

“In the opinion of Ordo Iuris lawyers, the entry of Radosław Sikorski and the entries of Dorota Brejza constitute a clear violation of the Institute’s personal rights. They assign to the Foundation features and actions which depart from the reality, and are aimed at undermining the Institute’s good name, image and reputation in the eyes of the public. Therefore, we will seek compensation and apologies for the violations of personal rights. At the same time, the Foundation stresses that it will immediately respond in the case of the dissemination of false information about it in the form of initiating appropriate legal proceedings”, underlines attorney Maciej Kryczka from the Ordo Iuris Process Intervention Centre.