European Foundation of Human Rights in defence of “Kurier Wileński”

On October 14^th 2011, Advocate Mr Tadeusz Gudziński filed a complaint on behalf of Kurier Wileński daily to the European Court of Human Rights against the Republic of Lithuania for imposing a fine on the daily’s editorial office for publishing in November 2006 a paper by Krzysztof Buchowski entitled ‘The Way a Lithuanian citizen was Perceived by a Pole in the Interwar Period’, which was read at a Polish-Lithuanian scientific conference.

After years’ long proceedings in national courts, on April 14th 2011, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania ruled that the Ethics Commission for Journalists and Publishers was right in considering Kurier Wileński daily as guilty of inciting national antagonisms on account of the fact of publishing the paper of the Polish scientist, and that the imposed fine was justified.

The European Foundation of Human Rights sees this sentence as unlawful in the light of international law ratified by Lithuania. In the light of the present judicature of the European Court of Human Rights, there is sound evidence that the decision of the Commission, upheld by the Lithuanian courts, is against Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides the right to freedom of expression.

European Foundation of Human Rights would like to express gratitude to Dr Ireneusz C. Kamiński for his help in drawing up the complaint.

The European Foundation of Human Rights lends help to Kurier Wileński within the programme Legal Aid Centre.

Tłumaczenie Katarzyna Różańska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Katarzyna Różańska within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.