Judgment concerning Poland
In the case of Sieć Obywatelska Watchdog Polska v. Poland the Court held that there had been a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
The case concerned an NGO’s attempts to gain access to diaries of meetings of two Constitutional Court judges and to that court’s visitors’ logbook. The request for information took place against the background of doubts over whether the two judges had met with a politician whose status in criminal proceedings was being decided by the Constitutional Court.
The Court found that the NGO, a well-established organisation specialising in human rights and the rule of law, had sought to have access to the meeting diaries because it had been in the public interest, especially given the political context and debate over the impartiality of the Constitutional Court. Denying it access to such information had therefore interfered with the NGO’s right to receive and impart information.