Several organizations, including the Helsinki Foundation, are boycotting a debate today at the Prime Minister's Office in Warsaw on the Polish ratification of ACTA.

Members of the Improvised Free Internet Congress, including the Helsinki Foundation, have issued a statement saying: "We appreciate the government's attempt to join in the debate on civil rights and freedoms on the internet […] however, in light of the controversy that has arisen around ACTA, we believe that the conditions necessary to conduct this debate in a fair manner are lacking in complete transparency and openness.”

Katarrzyna Szymelewicz from the Panoptykon Foundation has said that until the government releases “secret” sections of the anti-internet piracy ACTA agreement into the public realm the debate on the puralateral international agreement will be “asymmetric”.

On behalf of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the Ministry of Administration and Digitalization invited civil rights organisations, NGOs, bloggers, scientists and journalists to the debate at 14.00 CET, Monday afternoon, as part of a public consultation on ACTA, which was signed by Poland and other EU members in Tokyo, late January.

Street and online protests against ACTA claim that the Polish government signed the agreement without consultation, and argue that the anti-piracy agreement is an attack on basic freedoms of expression.

The Anonymous hacktivist group took down government web sites in the run up to the signing of the agreement and police are investigating criminal damage to the Prime Minister's Office web site.

Poland's largest opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS) has called for a referendum on the issue in Poland before MPs vote on whether to ratify ACTA.

On his party's late-coming to the ACTA debate – PiS had themselves raised no objections to the agreement till recently - Law and Justice MP Adam Hofman admitted to Polish Radio this morning that “PiS MPs did not realise how big a threat [ACTA] was to freedom on the internet”.

His party will now do everything they can to oppose the ratification of the agreement and hope that the European Parliament will block the scheme. (pg)