OKO.press journalist had a right to appeal against denial of access to a session of parliament

Handicapped people had scheduled a protest in the Sejm on 10 May 2018. Consequently, on 25 April 2018 the Sejm Information Centre announced that for “organisational and safety reasons” it was suspending issuance of single-admission passes to sessions of the parliament. The commander of the parliamentary guard service, acting pursuant to an order from the Speaker of the Sejm, denied admission to many people seeking to report on sessions of a parliamentary committee devoted to the protest, or to take part in the sessions. One of the people denied access was a journalist from the news site OKO.press.

The journalist appealed against this decision to the Province Administrative Court in Warsaw, which upheld the complaint and found that the denial of admission was ineffective. The Speaker of the Sejm then appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court, alleging in his cassation appeal that denial of admission to the Sejm cannot be reviewed by the administrative court. The Ombudsman also joined the case on the journalist’s side.

The Supreme Administrative Court denied the cassation appeal and upheld the judgment below. The high court shared the view presented by counsel and the Ombudsman and recognised a constitutional right on the part of every citizen to access public information and to attend sessions of bodies chosen in public elections. The court held that the act complained of was taken in exercise of public authority and thus was reviewable by the court.

The journalist who filed the complaint in the case was represented by Artur Pietryka, Filip Rak and Magdalena Kotowicz from Wardyński & Partners.