The Regional Court of Gdańsk has inquired Constitutional Tribunal whether the regulation which bans insulting the President of the Polish Republic is compatible with the Polish Constitution. At the moment Aricle 135 of the Penal Code says: “whoever publicly insults the President of the Republic of Poland will be subject to imprisonment up to three years.” If the Constitutional Tribunal recognizes this regulation as unconstitutional, all artistic and literary projects, satires and jokes will be disseminated without punishing their authors. Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights asked to submit such a question two years ago when the case of homeless Hubert H. was tried in court. This time the Foundation may act as a “friend of the court”.

So far the regulation affected homeless Hubert H., the authors of the website „kaczynski ma małego fiutka” (kaczynski has a small willy) and people who tried to insult Aleksander Kwaśniewski, a former Polish president. Artists, however, haven't made too many attempts to insult presidents, maybe because of the current legal status quo.

Indeks 73 commentary
Aricle 135, which bans insulting the President of the Republic of Poland, may lead to abuse of the regulation and – as the situation in Poland shows – preventive censorship. If the citizens don't make fun of the president it may be actually a result of restrictive regulations. Yet, it's not that bad. Enjoy a quote from Forum Gazeta.pl:

“Question: Sentence: 'President is a pig' – is an unpardonable offence.
But is the sentence: 'P. RESIDENT IS A PIG' an offence too?”
http://forum.gazeta.pl/forum/72,2.html?f=425&w=81685752

Read more (in Polish):
The article on the website Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights with a link to the Foundation commentary