Best & Worst of CPAC's Free Speech Ratings: Poland

Poland has earned a 90% CPAC free speech rating, demonstrating a strong national commitment to preserving freedom of expression. Poland has also proven to be a dependable ally of the United States and other high-scoring nations, particularly following the election of President Karol Nawrocki. Nawrocki has emphasized his commitment to defending free speech by actively opposing online censorship and other restrictive measures. What kind of government does Poland have currently? Having spent much of the last century under authoritarian rule as a Soviet-controlled proxy state after the devastation of World War II, Poland understands the dangers of regimes that suppress human rights. Today, it draws from that history a deep appreciation for the necessity of protecting freedom of expression.

CPAC's evaluation covers a range of incidents regarding threats to freedom of speech in Poland. One notable case involved a former priest who was convicted of "hate speech" and sentenced to six months of community service. The man is identified as Mateusz Woźnicki. He condemned "international Jews" and implied that all Jews should be expelled from Poland. In 2019, he had been detained for "inciting hatred."

While this case raises some concerns about Freedom of Speech in Poland, his sentence was community service rather than jail time. The Freedom of Speech Ratings rank countries according to the most serious kind of free-speech-violation: whether a government imprisons or executes its citizens for speech. Because Poland does not imprison or execute its citizens for speech, but does not grant a constitutional right to freedom of speech, it receives a score of 90% in CPAC's Freedom of Speech Ratings.

Read the full brief here.

Not every case of imprisonment for speech gets widespread media attention. If you are aware of a case in which a person was imprisoned for speech and received a harsher sentence than the political prisoner whom we feature in the scorecard, please send the details of the case to slaird2@conservative.org. To meet our methodological criteria, the person must be 1) imprisoned or sentenced to prison for speech that would have been protected under the US first amendment, 2) a citizen of the country in which they are imprisoned, 3) received a sentence of imprisonment for at least one month OR were imprisoned without being sentenced for at least 3 months 4) not imprisoned for any actual crime during the same period for which they were sentenced for a speech crime.

CPAC vehemently opposes the views of many of the political prisoners featured in the Freedom of Speech Ratings. Political prisoners are featured in the Freedom of Speech Ratings for the purpose of revealing the state of legal Freedom of Speech protection in their countries. Political prisoners are selected based on the objective facts of their cases; each selected prisoner is the person who received the harshest sentence in that country for speech that would have been protected by the US First Amendment. CPAC stands for the right to Freedom of Speech for everyone, even people whose views we vehemently oppose.