A Polish journalist preparing an article sent questions to a company for comment. The company found the content of the questions harmful to its reputation and filed a criminal case for defamation, even though the article ultimately was not published. The court, however, didn't see any harm in the journalist's actions and threw out the case. "If the journalist was convicted, it would constitute a dangerous precedent that could lead to the so-called chilling effect," said Dorota Głowacka, the coordinator of the Observatory of Media Freedom in Poland at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.