European Court of Human Rights

Resolution CM/ResDH(2011)117¹

Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

Rizos and Daskas against Greece

(Application No. 65545/01, judgment of 27 May 2004, final on 27 August 2004)

The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” and “the Court”);

Having regard to the judgment transmitted by the Court to the Committee once it had become final;

Recalling that the violation of the Convention found by the Court in this case concerns a disproportionate constraint upon the journalist applicants’ right to freedom of expression (violation of Article 10) (see details in Appendix);

Having invited the government of the respondent state to inform the Committee of the measures taken to comply with Greece’s obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention to abide by the judgment;

Having examined the information provided by the government in accordance with the Committee’s Rules for the application of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention;

Having satisfied itself that, within the time-limit set, the respondent state paid the applicants the just satisfaction provided in the judgment (see details in Appendix),

Recalling that a finding of violations by the Court requires, over and above the payment of just satisfaction awarded in the judgment, the adoption by the respondent state, where appropriate:

- of individual measures to put an end to the violations and erase their consequences so as to achieve as far as possible restitutio in integrum; and

- of general measures, preventing similar violations;

DECLARES, having examined the measures taken by the respondent state (see Appendix), that it has exercised its functions under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention in this case and

DECIDES to close the examination of this case.

Appendix to Resolution CM/ResDH(2011)117

Information about the measures to comply with the judgment in the case of

Rizos and Daskas against Greece

Introductory case summary

The case concerns an action for damages for defamation and insult, initiated in 1997 against the applicants, the publisher and the editor of a Greek daily newspaper respectively, following the publication in 1995 of their article on scandals involving judges and prosecutors in the town of Preveza, northern Greece.

The domestic courts ordered the applicants to pay damages to one of the plaintiffs, a public prosecutor. They found that a certain part of the article at issue was not accurate and was formulated in a manner to offend the honour and reputation of the complainant.

The European Court found that the parts of the article that had formed the basis for the applicants’ conviction did not go beyond the limits of permissible comment on a topical issue. The European Court concluded that the undoubted interest of the public prosecutor in question in protecting his reputation did not outweigh the vital public interest in receiving information about a matter relating to the functioning of the judicial system. Consequently, there had not been a reasonable balance between the restrictions on the applicants’ right to freedom of expression and the legitimate aim pursued (violation of Article 10).

I. Payment of just satisfaction and individual measures

a) Details of just satisfaction

b) Individual measures

The European Court awarded the applicants pecuniary damages covering the total amount of damages and costs that they had been ordered to pay by the domestic courts. The Court also noted that the finding of the violation constituted in itself sufficient just satisfaction for any non-pecuniary damage possibly sustained by the applicants. Consequently no other individual measure was considered necessary by the Committee of Ministers.

II. General measures

The Ministry of Justice sent the European Court’s judgment to the Court of Cassation and the Council of State. A summary of the judgment was further disseminated to the presidents of all first-instance and appeal courts in Greece. The Court’s judgment was also translated and published on the site of the State Legal Council (www.nsk.gov.gr).

However, certain additional issues in this field are highlighted in more recent judgments. The measures taken or envisaged in this respect by the Greek authorities are being supervised by the Committee of Ministers in the context of the Katrami group of cases (19331/05).

III. Conclusions of the respondent state

The government considers that no individual measures are required apart from the payment of the just satisfaction, that the general measures adopted will prevent similar violations to those found in the present cases and that, in this respect, Greece has complied with its obligations under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention.