Journalistic investigation and journalistic liability for the violation of the pre-trial confidentiality

Michał Zaremba

The inspiration for this article was the government's project of liberalizing Article 241 of the Penal Code that punishes the disclosure of information concerning criminal proceedings. This provision is relatively often applied to investigative journalists. Therefore, the ban it contains is considered to be a significant limitation of freedom of speech and the press. The article presents the views of the doctrine on this regulation as well as the practice of its application by judicial authorities. The author also quotes the opinions of the European Court of Human Rights relating to the media right to inform about the progress of criminal proceedings. The analysis herein conducted adequately justifies, according to the author, the relevance of the proposed amendment.

KEYWORDS

investigative journalism, confidentiality in criminal proceedings, investigation confidentiality, legal responsibility of the media, court reporting