In 2009, Dorota Rabczewska (better known as the singer Doda) said some *really* unpopular things about the Bible:

[Doda] said in a 2009 interview that she doubted the Bible “because it’s hard to believe in something that was written by someone drunk on wine and smoking some herbs.”

Sounds harmless, but it offended “Catholic sensitivities” in Poland. Earlier today, more than two years after that harmless insinuation was uttered, a Polish court fined her 5,000 zlotys ($1,450) for the crime of “offending religious feelings.”

Apparently, “the Criminal Code provides that whoever insults the religious feelings of other persons by outraging in public an object of religious worship, subject to a fine, imprisonment or up to 2 years in prison.” In other words, if you’re superstitious enough to worship some object, you’re allowed by the courts to whine when someone criticizes your gullibility, even if they’re right.

Doda doesn’t plan to appeal the ruling, but I don’t know how the courts are getting away with this, even in a country that’s overwhelmingly Catholic. Someone who understands the country’s laws might be better able to explain where the line is between free speech and “offending religious feelings.”

(Thanks to Katherine for the link)



