The European Court condemned Portugal for violating the freedom of speech of journalists

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Tuesday condemned Portugal for violating freedom of expression by ordering a €1,510 payment to a journalist after he was found guilty of breaching judicial secrecy in a “secret case”.

According to a Strasbourg court ruling on Tuesday, the case dates back to February 2012, when journalist Cristina Ferreira of Público reported that authorities had seized the computers of two former spies then working for the company Ongoing “as part of a criminal offence.” investigation into high-level corruption, illegal access and abuse of power,” which was kept under judicial secrecy from August 2011 to May 2012.

The journalist was sentenced by a court in March 2017 to a 100-day fine, equivalent to 1,000 euros.

The verdict was confirmed in December of the same year by the Lisbon Court of Appeal, leading to a complaint alleging violations of freedom of expression.

The ECtHR stressed that the article published by Cristina Ferreira “caused significant public interest” and that the case and the suspects in it had already been reported previously, meaning that Portuguese justice should have taken this fact into account.

“It is doubtful that, given the media coverage of the case, the facts under investigation and its political significance, it was still necessary to prevent the disclosure of information that, at least in part, was already in the public domain. “The court notes that the domestic authorities have not demonstrated how, in the circumstances of the case, the disclosure of information (…) had a negative impact on the judicial investigation,” the decision says.

According to the European Court, Portuguese justice limited itself to the “formal and automatic application of the crime of breach of judicial secrecy”, without taking into account what was already known about the case and the expected impact of the disclosure of this information on the investigation.

“In these circumstances, the protection of information, by virtue of its sensitive nature, cannot constitute a mandatory requirement,” the judges said, concluding: “The Court considers that the appellant’s conviction constituted a disproportionate interference with her right to freedom of expression and that there was therefore no necessary in a democratic society.”

The ECtHR recognized the violation of the journalist’s freedom of speech by the decisions of the national court, ordering the Portuguese state to pay 1,000 euros in compensation for material damage and another 510 euros to cover the costs of this process, for a total of 1,510 euros.