Sejm takes up Amway censorship case<BR>

The Sejm is reacting to recent court cases filed by direct-sale company Amway and six of its distributors over an independently produced documentary financed by Telewizja Polska (TVP) that has not yet been aired. The film was only shown at the lodz media festival, where it was awarded a grand prize.
Six Amway distributors interviewed in the film and Amway itself, all of whom claim material in the film defames them, successfully asked for an injunction to block the documentary from being broadcast until the court hears the case. TVP appealed this decision, but was rejected on April 17.
The court's decision caused outrage in the Polish media which claimed that allowing injunctions to be applied to print or broadcast material violated freedom of speech.
An independent producer, Henryk Dederko, directed the film, called "Welcome to Life." It reportedly features interviews with six distributors of Amway Polska, intermixed with the direct-sales giant's promotional materials and scenes from meetings and training sessions, some of which were allegedly shot without company permission.
"The movie is really dirty," said Piotr Czarnowski, president of First Public Relations, which represents Amway Polska.
According to Czarnowski, distributors took offense to the way the film portrayed their goals and ambitions. Amway sued the film's director over the fact that the documentary allegedly suggests the company manipulates and brainwashes its distributors into selling its products.
"They were made to look like complete morons, without any brains," Czarnowski said. "And if you make your living by making people trust you, such a movie may really harm your interests."
In addition to Amway's lawsuit, the six distributors filed independent complaints in the provincial courts of lodz and Warsaw, claiming the film was defamatory.
Amway has more than 80,000 distributors here. In Poland the company had sales of zl. 137 million ($42.81 million) in 1997.
In addition to the six distributors' and Amway's lawsuits against producer Dederko, Network Twenty-One, the company that produces Amway's promotional materials, also sued. Network Twenty-One claimed Dederko used material produced by the company without first obtaining the necessary copyright permission.
Poland's largest-circulation daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, March 25 published an open letter to President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Sejm deputies, asking them to take a stand on the case and exclude print or broadcast material from injunctions.
"An injunction which temporarily bans publication, in reality constitutes a court-constituted censorship, which limits the right of free speech and citizens' right to information," read the letter. "In our view essential limitations on (public) statements should be based on the responsibility for one's words and not on preventive action on the part of any state authority."
In the meantime, TVP officials are waiting for the court to issue an opinion on why it upheld the injunction. "We're surprised by the decision, but we cannot do anything right now but wait for an explanation of the court's decision which should come within the next two weeks," said Joanna Bancerowska, a member of TVP's managing board. "But we still think that the social interest is the most important here."
Some media lawyers praised the court, saying that companies have the right to defend their reputations. "The court's decision (to issue the injunctions) was utterly right," said Bogudar Kordasiewicz, a media lawyer with Hogan & Hartson in Warsaw.
"In a case like this, if the plaintiff's rights are not secured before the actual case takes place, the case's outcome does not really matter," he said. "If there is any potential harm involved, it is done a long time before the verdict is issued."