The case of a Finnish photographer who was convicted for disobeying police while covering a demonstration in Helsinki is to be heard by the grand chamber of the European court of human rights (ECHR).
That decision has been welcomed by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), bodies that have supported photo-journalist Markus Veikko Pentikainen.
He was sent by a weekly magazine to cover a demonstration in September 2006. When it turned violent, police stopped the event, sealed off the area and allowed demonstrators to leave.
Pentikainen remained in order to continue picturing a small group of demonstrators who refused to leave. Police then arrested them along with Pentikainen.
He was convicted in December 2007 of disobeying the police, a judgment finally upheld by Finland's supreme court in September 2009.
In February this year, the fourth section chamber of the ECHR held, by five votes to two, that there was no violation of article 10 of the human rights convention, the clause that provides the right to freedom of expression.
It said the Finnish courts had struck a fair balance between the competing interests at stake and that they had therefore been entitled to decide that the interference with the applicant's freedom of expression was "necessary in a democratic society".
The Strasbourg court underlined that Pentikainen was not arrested for acting as a photographer, but for refusing to obey police orders to leave the scene.
But two of the judges produced a dissenting opinion in which they said the case revealed a one-sided attitude on the part of the Finnish authorities which was likely to create a "chilling effect" on press freedom.
The decision to refer the case to the grand chamber was made by a panel of five judges.
Sources: PA Media Lawyer/IFJ
