PM Buzek wins libel case over false allegation of a hit and run accident

Yesterday the district court of Warsaw decided that the election committee of the Alternatywa Social Movement, a Euro-sceptic party, has to apologize to Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek for slander. The committee's TV commercial said that on September 7, in Gliwice, "the Prime Minister's Lancia drove over a miner on the side walk and then fled the accident scene". It transpired that the accident never took place. The court deemed Alternatywa's commercial to be libelous election propaganda. Alternatywa has been ordered to apologize to the Prime Minister on TVP1 three days in a row, and in "Rzeczpospolita". A representative of Alternatywa announced their appeal against the court's decision. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 27) P.W.