Background

In Rabczewska v Poland [2022] ECHR 680, Ms Dorota Rabczewska, described by the Court as “a popular pop singer known as Doda” (which reminded me of HHJ Pickles of “who are the Beatles?” fame), had told a tabloid journalist that though the biblical message did have some value it was unhistorical. Though she believed in a “higher power” and had had a religious upbringing, she was more convinced by scientific discoveries and not by what she described as “the writings of someone wasted from drinking wine and smoking some weed”. When asked whom she meant by that, she replied “all those guys who wrote those incredible [biblical] stories” [6].

Article 196 of Poland’s Criminal Code is, in effect, a blasphemy law: Continue reading →