European Court of Human Rights condemns Romania for violation of free speech right

The European Court of Human Rights has decided Romania will pay EUR 11,000 in moral damages and judiciary expenses to a Romanian journalist who had sued the state for having violated her free speech right. Romanian Cornelia Popa was condemned for libel in 2002, after writing an article about a judge and the way the judge had settled a work litigation. The Romanian courts decided the journalist had to pay damages to the judge. In this case, the ECHR has condemned Romania for having infringed article 10 in the Convention of Human Rights. There were 791 judgments at the ECHR for Romania between 1959 and 2010, one of the highest numbers in Europe, after Turkey, with 2,573, Italy, with 2,121, Russia, with 1,079 cases and Poland, with 874 cases. Out of the judgments for Romania, 719 found at least one violation. Romania's first judgment in front of the ECHR was in 1998. editor@romania-insider.com