FOURTH SECTION
CASE OF DIAS DOS SANTOS FERREIRA DA COSTA CABRAL v. PORTUGAL
(Application no. 25282/18)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
STRASBOURG
30 April 2024
 
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Dias dos Santos Ferreira da Costa Cabral v. Portugal,
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Tim Eicke, President,
 Armen Harutyunyan,
 Ana Maria Guerra Martins, judges,
and Crina Kaufman, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 25282/18) against the Portuguese Republic lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 23 May 2018 by a Portuguese national, Ms Maria Cristina Dias dos Santos Ferreira da Costa Cabral (“the applicant”), who was born in 1957, lives in Lisbon and was represented by Mr F. Teixeira da Mota, a lawyer practising in Lisbon;
the decision to give notice of the application to the Portuguese Government (“the Government”), represented by their Agent, Mr R. Bragança de Matos, Public Prosecutor;
the parties’ observations;
Having deliberated in private on 9 April 2024,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The applicant is a journalist working for a national daily newspaper, O Público. 2. On 4 February 2012 a news article written by the applicant and entitled “Two more former spies targeted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office” was published in the above-mentioned newspaper. It reported on the search and seizure of the computers of the two suspects in a criminal investigation into high-level corruption, illegal access and abuse of power, in which former senior officials of the intelligence services, as well as high-ranking political figures, were allegedly involved in illegal operations to take control of a major Portuguese media group. The news item, which had already received media coverage, identified two former intelligence officials who had been hired as information technology experts by a media company whose operations were being investigated. 3. The above-mentioned judicial investigation was under investigative secrecy as per a decision of the investigating judge during the period between 4 August 2011 and 7 May 2012. 4. By judgment of the Lisbon District Court of 9 March 2017, upheld by the Lisbon Court of Appeal on 14 December 2017, the applicant was sentenced to a 100-day fine, corresponding to the amount of 1,000 euros (“EUR”) for disclosing information covered by investigative secrecy in the news article at issue. 5. Relying on Article 10 of the Convention, the applicant alleged that her criminal conviction had violated her right to freedom of expression.

Article of the Convention at issue: Article 10
Outcome: violation