FERREIRA VICTORINO DE QUEIROS v PORTUGAL - 23063/18 (Article 10 - Freedom of expression - {general} : Fourth Section Committee)

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 Simeon Petrovski, Deputy Section Registrar ,

the application (no. 23063/18 ) 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 8 May 2018 by a Portuguese national, Mr Óscar Manuel Ferreira Victorino de Queirós ("the applicant"), who was born in 1960, lives in Matosinhos and was represented by Mr M.J. Mendes, a lawyer practising in Porto;

the decision to give notice of the application to the Portuguese Government ("the Government"), represented by their Agent, Mr. R.J. Bragança de Matos, Public Prosecutor;

The applicant is a journalist in a daily newspaper Jornal de Notícias ("JN") . The case concerns his criminal conviction for defamation in relation to an article published in JN about a criminal investigation in respect of R.B., a teacher, for charges of (sexual) abuse of children. Invoking Articles 6 and 10 of the Convention, the applicant alleges that his conviction breached his right to freedom of expression, in particular, his right to impart information.