ABSTRACT
Mr Oberschlick was a journalist and editor of the periodical Forum. As a result of statements made during the parliamentary election campaign by Mr Walter Grabher-Meyer, then Secretary General of the Austrian Liberal Party, concerning reduction in family allowances for immigrant mothers, on 20 April 1983 the applicant and several other persons laid a criminal information against Mr Grabher-Meyer. However, the Vienna public prosecutor’s office decided on 1 June 1983 not to prosecute him. On the day it was laid, the full text of the criminal information was published by the applicant in Forum. On 22 April 1983 Mr Grabher-Meyer brought a private prosecution for defamation against the applicant and the other signatories of the criminal information. The Review Chamber of the Vienna Regional Criminal Court decided on the same day to order the discontinuance of the proceedings. On appeal by Mr Grabher-Meyer, the Vienna Court of Appeal quashed the above decision on 31 May 1983. Following the second set of proceedings held on 11 May 1984, the Regional Court convicted the applicant of defamation and sentenced him to a fine or, in default, to imprisonment. The applicant’s subsequent request for the trial record to be rectified was rejected. On 17 December 1984 the Vienna Court of Appeal, composed of the same judges, dismissed the applicant’s appeal. His appeal to the Attorney General was rejected. He complained that he had not had a fair hearing by an impartial tribunal and of an infringement of his right to freedom of expression as a result of the defamation proceedings instituted against him and his subsequent conviction. Comm found by majority (19-2) V 10, (20-1) V 6(1) in relation to the proceedings before the Court of Appeal, unanimously NV 6(1) in relation to the proceedings before the Regional Court.
