Diritto ed Economia dell'ImpresaISSN 2499-3158
G. Giappichelli Editore

10/03/2022 - Freedom of expression: denying access to condifential documents does not violate the ECHR.

argomento: News del mese - Diritto Internazionale e Comunitario

Articoli Correlati: CEDU - freedom of expression - access to information

On 3rd February 2022, the ECHR section I, with sentence no. 39325/20 ruled on a “Croatian” case in which the legitimacy of the refusal opposed by the administrative and judicial authorities to the request of a former politician to access some documents classified as confidential, necessary for a bibliographic search in view of the publication of a book edited by him, unanimously, ruled out that any violation of article 10 ECHR (right to freedom of expression). The Court found in particular that the decision of the President of the State Archive to refuse the declassification of some of the requested documents was based on an opinion from a specialized body dealing with national security issues and was ultimately examined and supported by the Information Commissioner, the High Administrative Court and the Constitutional Court. Furthermore, following the request for access, most of the documents had been granted. The Strasbourg Court concluded that the interference with the applicant’s freedom of access to information had been necessary and proportionate to the important purpose of national security and that the subsequent independent internal review of his requested had provided with sufficient procedural guarantees and was remained within the broad discretion of the state to decide of such matters.