Thoma v Luxembourg: ECHR 29 Mar 2001

Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 10; Pecuniary damage – financial award; Non-pecuniary damage – finding of violation sufficient; Costs and expenses partial award
The Court was concerned with a radio report on corruption, in the context of a re-afforestation, and reference was made to an ‘authoritative source’ which said that there was only one person who was incorruptible. Actions for libel were brought by persons claiming to be identifiable as the subject of corruption accusations. The Court, on those facts, took the view that the journalist had in fact adopted, at any rate partly, the content of the quotation in question. Despite this, it was held that the award of nominal damages against the journalist had constituted a breach of Article 10. It was not appropriate for the law to insist that he should formally distance himself from the content of the quotation, at least in circumstances where it was clear to the reader that the offending passage was a quotation from someone else.
38432/97, (2003) 36 EHRR 21, [2001] ECHR 240
Worldlii, Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights 10
Human Rights
Cited by:
CitedGeorge Galloway MP v Telegraph Group Ltd QBD 2-Dec-2004
The claimant MP alleged defamation in articles by the defendant newspaper. They claimed to have found papers in Iraqi government offices after the invasion of Iraq which implicated the claimant. The claimant said the allegations were grossly . .
CitedGeorge Galloway MP v The Telegraph Group Ltd CA 25-Jan-2006
The defendant appealed agaiunst a finding that it had defamed the claimant by repeating the contents of papers found after the invasion of Iraq which made claims against the claimant. The paper had not sought to justify the claims, relying on . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 30 August 2021; Ref: scu.166069