Magazine publisher convicted of insulting pope

WARSAW, Poland - The former communist-era government spokesman was convicted and fined $6,500 Tuesday for insulting Polish-born Pope John Paul II in a satirical weekly.

A court ruled that Jerzy Urban, founder and publisher of the weekly magazine "NIE" - Polish for "no" - illegally insulted the pope when he wrote and printed a piece making fun of the pontiff's age and frailty before a papal visit to Poland in August 2002.

Urban, 71, earned a reputation for his sarcasm and acid tongue in the early 1980s when he served as the spokesman for the government of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski. Jaruzelski's government imposed martial law in an attempt to crush the Solidarity freedom movement. After the fall of communism, Urban became a successful and wealthy businessman.

"The court has no doubt that, intending to ridicule the church, Jerzy Urban ridiculed and derided the pope," Judge Barbara Laskowska said. "Publishing the story at that time was an intended provocation by Jerzy Urban and was a scandal."

Urban was found guilty of violating a law that bans publicly insulting foreign heads of state. The pope heads the Vatican, formally an independent state.

The ruling sparked cries of "Too little!" from Urban's opponents, who crowded the courtroom alongside the publisher's supporters. Prosecutors had asked for the fine and a 10-month suspended prison term.

"Jerzy Urban went beyond the limits of admissible criticism," by trying to draw media attention and a possible court trial, the judge said.

Urban claimed he exercised the right to free expression, and was innocent - but acknowledged he wanted to bring the subject of the pope out into the open.

"I did it not only to get media attention, but also to provoke protests," a calm and tanned Urban told reporters after the verdict. "The point was to not allow the church and the pope to be free from criticism in Poland."

Urban said he would appeal, but doubted he would succeed because of "the church-influenced intentions of our justice system."

Tadeusz Pieronek, a Polish Roman Catholic bishop, told the country's PAP news agency that the verdict "should be a warning to those who would like to act in a similar fashion."

"You can't behave in such a way," Pieronek said.

Prosecutor Maciej Kujawski brought the defamation charges in September 2003, after Catholics and other organizations accused Urban of offending the pope.

The court's decision will likely deepen concerns abroad that Poland - a European Union member since May - is violating Western-style press freedoms.

Earlier in the day, Miklos Haraszti of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, based in Vienna, Austria, wrote a letter to Polish Justice Minister Andrzej Kalwas, saying he fears press freedoms in the ex-communist country are being curtailed, citing Urban's case.

Last week, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders warned that Poland would violate European Union guarantees of freedom of expression if it sentenced Urban for defaming the pope.