Polish League Against Defamation

The Good Name Redoubt – Polish Anti-Defamation League or Polish League Against Defamation (Polish: Fundacja Reduta Dobrego Imienia - Polska Liga Przeciw Zniesławieniom) is a right-wing[1][2] non-governmental organization based in Warsaw, Poland. It was founded in 2013 by Maciej Świrski, who has close ties to the ruling Law and Justice Party.[3]

Good Name Redoubt –
Polish League Against Defamation
Reduta Dobrego Imienia -
Polska Liga Przeciw Zniesławieniom
Reduta Dobrego Imienia (logo)
FormationNovember 2012
TypeCivil rights
HeadquartersWarsaw, Poland
Key people
Maciej Świrski (Initiatior and President)
Websiterdi-plad.org, rdi.org.pl

Aims and objectives

The stated objectives of the League are to defend the name of Poland and the Polish people against acts of vilification in the international media or historical misrepresentation in the world of politics. For instance, on the 75th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 2014, the League staged a protest in front of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw against the Russian government's denial of responsibility for the atrocities committed by the Soviet Union in occupied Poland. The protest was attended by several hundred people including civil rights organizations such as Euromaidan from Ukraine and Solidarność Walcząca.[4]

According to the League's founder Maciej Świrski, the League acts through lobbying, publishing ads, open letters as well as articles which promote Poland's World War II history of defiance, stressing the country's critical role in defeating Nazi Germany.[5] According to Świrski, the League fights "anti-Polish propaganda" in foreign media and film, countering widely held perceptions that Poles were co-responsible with the Nazis for the Holocaust, and informs the general public on the "Polish death camp" controversy.[5][6]

Activities

Following the international release of the 2013 Polish film Ida, the league called for the film to carry title cards stating that Poland was under German occupation during the events depicted. More than 40,000 people signed a petition organized by the league criticizing Ida's supposed inaccuracies and anti-Polish bias. The film's director called the demands "absurd", "too silly to comment on", and "a stream of hatred from the rightist Polish media".[7]

The League collected tens of thousands of signatures in order to pass the Polish Holocaust law, which has been criticized by historians as an attempt to silence discussion of Polish complicity in wartime atrocities. Świrski, who heads the league, was instrumental in passing the bill and was possibly the only person consulted prior to the law being presented to parliament by the Justice ministry. In March 2018, following passage of the Holocaust law, the League filed a lawsuit the Argentine newspaper Pagina12 which published in December 2017 an item on the Jedwabne pogrom which contained a photograph that the League says is a post-war photograph rather than a 1941 photograph from Jedwabne.[3]

Criticism

The Daily Telegraph, The Times of Israel, The Jewish Chronicle, and The Jerusalem Post have described the organization as "nationalist".[8][9][10][11] According to Amnesty International's Poland researcher Barbora Černušáková, it is a "nationalist organization close to Poland’s government".[12] Index on Censorship, has described the organization as a "campaign group close to the ruling Polish party",[13] as did The Guardian.[14] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency described the League as a "right-wing Polish group".[15] According to Haaretz it is an "independent organization considered close to Poland’s right-wing, nationalist government".[16]

gollark: No cheating there at all...
gollark: I'm interested in watching the ecosystem do ecosystem stuff and not getting plants.
gollark: If you cheat a bit, you can run the speed at about 1000x usual and do one tick per second.
gollark: Ignore the arbitrary rules and focus on figuring out how they ended up here.
gollark: Try and escape the room. If they can get out, they'll be able to ask people on the internet for the answer.

References
  1. Minkner, Kamil. "Polish contemporary art to the anti-semitism of Poles and its political significance." Review of Nationalities 6.1 (2016): 195-221. quote: One of the right-wing organizations Redoubt of Good Name – Polish League against Defamation (Reduta Dobrego Imienia...
  2. Pankowski, Rafał. "The Resurgence of Antisemitic Discourse in Poland." Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs 12.1 (2018): 21-37. quote: One of the first cases, initiated by the right-wing group Reduta Dobrego Imienia (also known as the Polish Anti-Defamation League), concerned a publication in a media outlet in Buenos Aires
  3. The First People Have Just Been Accused Of Violating Poland's New Holocaust Law, Buzzfeed News, J. Lester Feder & Marcin Krasnowolski, 3 March 2018
  4. Magdalena Piejko (17 September 2014). "Wielki protest przed ambasadą Rosji - 17 września, 75. lat temu Sowieci napadli na Polskę". Informacje. Niezalezna.pl. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  5. Świrski, Maciej (November 28, 2012). "Reduta Dobrego Imienia Polski. Brońmy się sami widząc biernośc polskiej władzy" [Polish Anti-Defamation League. Seeing the passivity of the Polish government, let defend ourselves.]. wPolityce.pl (in Polish).
  6. "Ważne słowa Jana Pietrzaka: Niemcy udają, że ich w II Wojnie Światowej nie było… "Dlaczego Komorowski to wspiera?"" [The Germans pretend as if they didn't exist during World War II… "Why is Komorowski supporting this?"]. wPolityce.pl (in Polish). February 26, 2013.
  7. Ida director Pawel Pawlikowski stands ground against complaints of historical inaccuracy, Guardian, 30 Jan 2015
  8. Oscar-nominated ‘Ida’ attacked by Polish nationalists, Times of Israel, 28 Jan 2015
  9. Oscars 2015: Pawel Pawlikowski on Oscar winner Ida, Telegraph, Tim Robey, 23 Feb 2015
  10. ARGENTINA NEWSPAPER FIRST TARGET OF CONTROVERSIAL POLISH HOLOCAUST LAW, JPost, Eytan Halon, 3 March 2018
  11. Polish historian says he was forced to switch jobs because of his Holocaust research, The Jewish Chronicle, Sam Sokol, 5 April 2018
  12. Poland's Holocaust Law Is a Dangerous Threat to Free Speech, Time, 9 March 2018
  13. Gebert, Konstanty. "Projecting Poland and its past: Poland wants you to talk about the “Polocaust”." Index on Censorship 47.1 (2018): 35-37., insert by Jemimah Steinfeld, quote: A campaign group close to the ruling Polish party filed charges of defamation against Argentinian newspaper Página/12 this March, the first case after the law was passed. Página/12 published an article in December 2017 about the massacre of Jews in Jedwabne in 1941, featuring an image of anti-communist Polish partisans. The Polish League Against Defamation claims confusing the image of the partisans with the issue of Jedwabne is defamatory. Since then, other media have shared the article.
  14. Poland: group sues Argentinian newspaper under new Holocaust law, Guardian, Christian Davies and Uki Goñi, 5 March 2018
  15. Polish group sues newspaper in Argentina under controversial new Holocaust law, 4 March 2018, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
  16. Poland's Holocaust Law: First Lawsuit Filed Using Contentious Legislation, Haaretz, Ofer Aderet, 4 March 2018
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