Convicted criminals and daily Fakt to be banned from Parliament?

The Sejm wants to rid itself of criminals, by banning individuals convicted on criminal charges, to run for Parliament and throwing out of the Sejm those MPs who were previously convicted. The proposals were initiated by the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), Law and Justice (PiS) and Polish Social-Democracy (SDPL). However, the latter party fears that in order to push such a bill through Parliament, an amendment to the Constitution may be required. The SLD is not enthusiastic about going quite that far, while the Civic Platform (PO) wants to seek legal experts' opinions first. Surprisingly, Self-Defense, which is the main target of the anti-criminal proposals, is not firmly against them. "Go ahead, throw us out of the Sejm. We have our farms to go back to, we are not afraid of work," said the party's leader Andrzej Lepper. Aside from kicking out criminals, some deputies would also like to see journalists from the Fakt tabloid banned from entering Parliament. This initiative comes after the paper failed to publish several corrections regarding false derogatory information on politicians it published. "How can it be that a gutter-press tabloid published by a German company can print lies about the highest authority in the state, and the Sejm can [do nothing about it] but read out a statement," raged deputy Wiesław Woda from the Polish Peasant Party. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 6) T.J.