ABSTRACT
Mr Roger Fressoz was a former publishing director of the weekly satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné. Mr Claude Roire was a journalist on the paper. In September 1989 there was a period of industrial unrest within the Peugeot motor company. The workforce’s demands included pay rises, which the management, led by the company chairman and managing director Mr Jacques Calvet, refused to award. On 27 September 1989, Le Canard enchaîné published an article by Mr Roire referring to salary increases awarded to Mr Jacques Calvet. The article was illustrated by a box reproducing a photocopy of extracts from Mr Calvet’s last three tax assessments. Following a criminal complaint by Mr Calvet, the applicants were committed for trial before the Criminal Court on charges of handling confidential information concerning Mr Calvet’s income obtained through a breach of professional confidence by an unidentified tax official and of handling stolen photocopies of Mr Calvet’s tax assessments. On 17 June 1992, Paris Criminal Court acquitted the applicants. The public prosecutor and the civil parties claiming damages appealed. On 10 March 1993, Paris Court of Appeal reversed the judgment and found the applicants guilty of handling photocopies of Mr Calvet’s tax returns obtained through a breach of professional confidence by an unidentified tax official. They were sentenced to, respectively, fines of FF 10,000 and FF 5,000 and ordered, jointly and severally, to pay Mr Calvet FF 1 by way of damages for non-pecuniary damage and FF 10,000 by way of reimbursement of legal costs. Their appeal to the Court of Cassation on points of law was dismissed on 3 April 1995. They complained that their conviction by the Court of Appeal constituted a breach of their right to freedom of expression and that the principle of the presumption of innocence had been violated in their case. Comm found by majority (21-11) V 10, (18-14) no separate issue under 6(2).
