Warsaw newspaper undergoes exorcism

A priest, together with around 50 supporters of the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), carried out an exorcism ceremony on Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza (Electoral Gazette) on Sunday.

The protesters, who were carrying an image of the Virgin Mary, were demonstrating against what they claimed to be lies told by the newspaper. Having arrived at the newspaper’s Warsaw headquarters, the priest recited an exorcism prayer. The demonstrators were met with a large banner hanging from the building, reading “Constitution without censorship”, as well as leaflets featuring cartoons about freedom of speech.

The Law and Justice party won an absolute majority in the Polish parliamentary elections in October and plans to make large-scale changes to the media. Gazeta Wyborcza, along with much of the mainstream media, has been very critical of Law and Justice leader Jarosław Kaczyński and is seen as a symbol of free speech in Poland, in part because former dissident Adam Michnik is its editor-in-chief.

Source: Afisha (in Russian) and Yahoo!News