Two Polish journalists and their newspaper have secured a significant press freedom judgment at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Strasbourg judges ruled that the Polish courts had breached the rights of the journalists and their paper to freedom of expression.
The case concerned the publication of a story in May 2003 in Rzeczpospolita, the Warsaw-based national daily, which alleged that a senior official in Poland's health ministry had demanded a bribe from a pharmaceutical company.
It was claimed that, in return, he would assist having a drug manufactured by the company placed on the list of drugs to be refunded by the national health care scheme.
After the article's publication police launched an investigation in which the official was charged with bribery, but this was dropped after more than three years for lack of sufficient evidence.
The official sued the paper and its two journalists - Andrzej Stankiewicz and Malgorzata Solecka - arguing that they had infringed his personal rights.
The Polish courts, including the appeal court and supreme court, found in his favour. They decided that the journalists and the paper had not observed the necessary diligence in their journalism, and ordered them to publish an apology and to pay the official's legal costs.
But the ECHR judges disagreed. They ruled that the newspaper's article concerned issues of public interest because the official, who was also a close associate of the health minister, was holding a public office and that the limits of acceptable criticism were therefore wider in his case than in the case of a private individual.
"Unlike the latter, the former inevitably and knowingly lays himself open to close scrutiny of his words and deeds by journalists and the public at large, and he must consequently display a greater degree of tolerance," said the court.
It said the journalists had set out to verify their story meticulously: they and their newspaper had complied with the tenets of responsible journalism.
"The research done by the applicants before the publication of their allegations was in good faith and complied with the ordinary journalistic obligation to verify the facts from reliable sources," the court said.
The judges criticised Poland's domestic courts for not "assessing the diligence of the two journalists from the perspective of the information available at the time of preparation of the article."
Although the investigation into the official was eventually discontinued, the mere length of it (more than three-and-a-half years of proceedings) "would indicate that the allegations could not have been ignored."
The judges also criticised the Polish courts for failing to take account of the official's status and the wider limits of permissible criticism applicable to politicians or public officials.
"Similarly, they omitted to consider the fact that the allegations of corruption had emanated from the pharmaceutical company and had been reported as such by the applicants."
The court awarded each journalist €5,000 (£3,970) in non-pecuniary damages, and the newspaper's publisher €2,650 (£1,100) in pecuniary damages and €6,000 (£4,760) in costs and expenses.
Source: PA Media Lawyer
