CASE OF MATÚZ v. HUNGARY
Violation of Article 10 - Freedom of expression -{General} (Article 10-1 - Freedom of expression;Freedom to impart information);Pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage - award
András Sajó;Egidijus Kūris;Guido Raimondi;Jon Fridrik Kjølbro;Nebojša Vučinić;Robert Spano
4. The applicant was born in 1963 and lives in Balassagyarmat. 5. The applicant is a television journalist. From 15 February 2001 he was employed by the State television company (Magyar Televízió Zrt.). Following an amendment of his work contract on 10 July 2002, he was appointed for an indeterminate period. At the material time, he was chairman of the Trade Union of Public Service Broadcasters (Közszolgálati Műsorkészítők Szakszervezete), active within the television company. The applicant was in charge, as editor and presenter, of a periodical cultural programme called Éjjeli menedék (Night Shelter) which involved interviews with various figures of cultural life. 6. According to point 10 of his work contract, the applicant was bound by professional confidentiality. He was obliged not to reveal any information acquired in connection to his position the disclosure of which would be prejudicial to either his employer or any other person. According to the labour contract, he also took note of the fact that a breach of this obligation would lead to the immediate termination of his employment. 7. Following the appointment of a new cultural director the applicant had apparently contacted the television company’s president, since he had perceived the new director’s conduct in modifying and cutting certain contents of Éjjeli menedék as censorship. He had received no response to his complaint. 8. On 6 June 2003 the editor-in-chief of Éjjeli menedék addressed a letter to the board of Magyar Televízió Zrt. stating, amongst other things, that the appointment of the new cultural director had led to censorship of the programme by his suggesting modifications to, and the deletion of, certain contents. On 19 June 2003 an article appeared in the online version of a Hungarian daily (Magyar Nemzet Online), containing the editor-in-chief’s letter as well as a statement of Magyar Elektronikus Újságírók Szövetsége (Hungarian Union of Electronic Journalists), inviting the board to end censorship in the television company. 9. In 2004 the applicant published a book entitled “Az antifasiszta és a hungarista – Titkok a Magyar Televízióból” (The Antifascist and the Hungarista - Secrets from the Hungarian Television). Each chapter of the book contained an extract from different interviews recorded in 2003, which had not been broadcast in the cultural programme, apparently on the basis of the instructions of the cultural director in question. Along with the extracts, the applicant included numerous in-house letter exchanges between the cultural director and the editor-in-chief concerning the suggested changes in the programme. Moreover, the chapters contained a short introduction or summary of the events, reflecting the applicant’s personal opinion. The preface of the book said that it would contain documentary evidence of censorship exercised in the State television company. It called on the readers to decide whether the documents indicated the cultural director’s legitimate exercise of his supervisory functions or an interference with the broadcaster’s freedom of expression. 10. On 11 November 2004 the television company dismissed from employment the applicant and the editor-in-chief of Éjjeli menedék, with immediate effect. The reason for the applicant’s summary dismissal was that, by publishing the book in question, he had breached the confidentiality clause contained in his labour contract. 11. The applicant challenged his dismissal in court. He argued, inter alia, that he had received the in-house letter-exchange in connection with his position as the chairman of the trade union, in order for him to take steps against the alleged censorship at the television company, and that he had published the impugned book in that capacity. 12. In its judgment of 8 April 2008 the Budapest Labour Court dismissed the applicant’s action, stating that he had breached his obligations under point 10 of his work contract by publishing information about his employer without its consent. The court also found that the applicant’s position as chairman of the trade union did not exempt him from the duty of confidentiality. 13. The applicant appealed, arguing that the publication of the book had not in any way prejudiced his employer or any other person and that he had not acquired the published information in connection with his position but in his capacity as trade union chairman. In that position, and in representation of the interests of his colleagues, he was obliged to act against the censorship within the television company. Thus, according to the applicant, the conditions of dismissal, as stipulated in point 10 of his labour contract, had not been fulfilled. 14. On 13 February 2009 the Budapest Regional Court dismissed the appeal on the same grounds as the Labour Court, adding that the publication of the book might have had a certain detrimental effect on the television company’s reputation. Furthermore, in the Regional Court’s opinion, the impugned measure had not constituted an abuse of rights on the employer’s side, since the applicant had voluntarily agreed to the restriction of his freedom of expression by signing his labour contract. 15. The applicant pursued a petition for review before the Supreme Court. He argued that he had been unlawfully dismissed in that his conduct, namely to inform the public about censorship at the State television company in a book – which was a last-ditch option given that his efforts vis-à-vis the management to have the matter investigated had been to no avail – should have been regarded as an exercise of his freedom of expression rather than an unlawful breach of his labour contract, especially in view of the fact that the allegation of censorship had not been refuted. 16. On 26 May 2010 the Supreme Court found against the applicant. Referring to the applicant’s submission concerning freedom of expression, it held that the scope of the case did not extend beyond the examination of the applicant’s breach of his labour obligations. In the court’s view, the applicant had indeed breached the contract by means of the unauthorised publication of internal documents of his former employer. The court expressly excluded from its scrutiny the question whether or not the applicant’s freedom of expression justified, in the circumstances, a formal breach of his labour contract. This decision was served on 13 July 2010.