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'Secretas'. Portugal condemned for violating journalist's rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) today condemned Portugal for violating freedom of expression, imposing a payment of 1,510 euros to a journalist after she was convicted of violating the secrecy of justice in the "secret services case".
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País Tribunal europeu
According to today’s decision by the Strasbourg-based court, the case dates back to February 2012, when journalist Cristina Ferreira, from Público, revealed that the authorities had seized the computers of two former spies then working for the company Ongoing, "in a criminal investigation into high-level corruption, illegal access and abuse of power" that was under judicial secrecy between August 2011 and May 2012.
The journalist would be sentenced by the court in March 2017 to 100 days of fines, corresponding to a value of 1,000 euros.
The sentence was confirmed in December of that year by the Lisbon Court of Appeal, which led to the filing of a complaint for violation of freedom of expression.
The ECHR stressed that the article published by Cristina Ferreira "was a matter of considerable public interest" and that the case and its suspects had already been reported in the news, so Portuguese justice should have taken this circumstance into account.
"It is questionable whether, taking into account the media coverage of the case, the facts under investigation and their political relevance, it was still necessary to prevent the dissemination of information that, at least in part, was already in the public domain. Furthermore, the court notes that the national authorities have not demonstrated how, in the circumstances of the case, the disclosure (...) negatively affected the judicial investigation", reads the decision.
For the European court, Portuguese justice limited itself to a "formal and automatic application of the crime of violation of judicial secrecy", without taking into account what was already known about the case and the alleged impact on the investigation of the disclosure of that information.
"In these circumstances, the protection of information by virtue of its secret nature cannot constitute an imperative requirement", said the judges, concluding: "The court considers that the conviction of the applicant constituted a disproportionate interference with her right to freedom of expression and that, therefore, it was not necessary in a democratic society".
The ECHR recognized the violation of the journalist's freedom of expression by the national judicial decisions, ordering the Portuguese State to pay 1,000 euros for pecuniary damages and another 510 euros to cover the expenses of this process, for a total of 1,510 euros.
Read Also: Tribunal dos Direitos Humanos recusa queixa de 'Xuxas' contra Portugal (Portuguese version)
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