(GHM/IFEX) – Greek Helsinki Monitor is welcoming Greece’s Supreme Court decision to overturn the verdict of 13 July 1998 by the “Single-Member First Instance Court of Salonica, Procedure for Summary Measures” which had ordered the removal, in every future reprint or edition, of the following entry in the “Dictionary of Modern Greek Language”: Bulgarian (…) […]
(GHM/IFEX) – Greek Helsinki Monitor is welcoming Greece’s Supreme Court
decision to overturn the verdict of 13 July 1998 by the “Single-Member First
Instance Court of Salonica, Procedure for Summary Measures” which had
ordered the removal, in every future reprint or edition, of the following
entry in the “Dictionary of Modern Greek Language”: Bulgarian (…) 2.
(abusive) the follower or player of a Salonica team (mainly PAOK).
Dictionary editor George Babiniotis had appealed to the Supreme Court but
had also removed this and other controversial entries from the second
printing of the first edition in the interim.
**Updates IFEX alert of 29 July and 27 May 1998**
The Supreme Court stated that the disputed dictionary entry did constitute
an offence against the plaintiff, but that the offence was not against the
law, as it was included in a scholarly publication, and there was no intent
to offend the plaintiff.
Greek Helsinki Monitor notes that 17 of the 48 Supreme Court judges held the
opinion that there was no offence whatsoever. 20 held the opinion that there
was an offence, though not criminal; and 11 felt there was indeed a criminal
offence. The lower court’s verdict was thus overturned by a vote of 37 to
11.
While considering this a positive development, Greek Helsinki Monitor
regrets that only a minority of judges (including the Supreme Court Chair)
adopted the position advocated by the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme
Court – that there cannot be an offence by such a dictionary entry. This was
the the only possible position that fully respects freedom of expression.
