Lopes Gomes Da Silva v. Portugal
![handle is hein.journals/hurcd11 and id is 513 raw text is: II HRCD [z00]
OS S Ii v. PR G
Freedom of expression - violation Article 10
Freedom of expression was of particular importance with regard to the press, the limits of acceptable
criticism being wider with regard to a politician acting in his public capacity. While political invective was
prone to become personal in tone, that was one of the hazards of political life and free debate that
acted as the guarantors of democratic society. Journalists could resort to a degree of exaggeration, or
even provocation.
In a judgment delivered on 28 September 2000 in the case of Lopes Gomes da Silva
v. Portugal, the European Court of Human Rights held unanimously that there
had been a violation of Article io (freedom of expression) of the European
Convention on Human Rights. Under Article 41 (just satisfaction) of the
Convention, the Court awarded the applicant 480,000 Portugese escudos (PTE)
for pecuniary damage and PTE 1,758,297 for legal costs and expenses. It held that
the judgment in itself constituted just satisfaction for any non-pecuniary damage.
This judgment is not final. Pursuant to Article 43, Section i of the Convention,
within three months from the date of the judgment of a Chamber, any party to the
case may, in exceptional cases, request that the case be referred to the Grand
Chamber.
1. Principal facts
The case concerns an application by a Portuguese applicant, Vicente Jorge Lopes
Gomes da Silva, who was born in 1945 and lives in Lisbon (Portugal).
At the material time the applicant was the manager of the daily newspaper
Ptiblico, one of the biggest selling papers in Portugal. In its edition of io June 1993
Ptiblico published an article saying that the People's Party (Partido Popular- CDS/
PP) had asked Mr Silva Resende, a lawyer and journalist, to stand as a candidate in
the Lisbon municipal elections. On the same page the applicant published an
editorial criticising that invitation and asserting in particular: a more grotesque
and clownish candidate from the ideological point of view could not be found
anywhere, or such an incredible mixture of reactionary coarseness, fascist bigotry
and vulgar anti-Semitism. In the same edition of Pblico numerous extracts from
Mr Silva Resende's recent articles were published in which, among other things, he](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hurcd11&div=130&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Lopes Gomes Da Silva v. Portugal
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