The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled in favor of the Chisinau-based Flux newspaper in the case of “case of Flux v. Moldova (no. 5)”, holding that there had been a violation of Article 10 (right to freedom of expression) of the European Convention, Info-Prim Neo reports. On 15 November 2002 the plaintiff FLUX published an article entitled “The criminal case file of Eugenia Duca, like five kilograms of waste paper”. It reported on the evolution of a high-profile criminal case against a business woman, who was convicted at the time but was later acquitted and compensated for illegal prosecution and detention, and published extracts from an open letter sent by her daughter to the President of the country, President of the Parliament, Prime Minister, Council of Europe, OSCE Mission in Moldova and other organizations. In the letter she complained of alleged abuses committed by the prosecution and by the judiciary against her mother. The letter contained, among other, the following sentence: “On 10 July 2001, the Deputy Prosecutor General Vasile Solomon (subsequently dismissed for dubious affairs), signed the indictment in Eugenia Duca's criminal case... and sent it to the Rascani District Court without her even having seen it.” On an unspecified date Vasile Solomon, who in the meantime was demoted, brought civil proceedings for defamation against the newspaper, arguing that the statement about his dismissal for dubious affairs was not true and that it was defamatory of him. The court ordered the newspaper to issue an apology within fifteen days and pay Solomon 2,700 Moldovan lei (178 euros at that time). The European Court notes that the article was written by a journalist and reiterates that the pre-eminent role of the press in a democratic society is to impart ideas and opinions on political matters and on other matters of public interest. The impugned article had a bearing on issues such as allegedly abusive criminal proceedings and the role played therein by a senior law officer. The European Court has no doubt that this is a very important matter in a democratic society which the public has a legitimate interest in being informed about. Accordingly, the Court concludes that the interference was not necessary in a democratic society. A year ago the Moldovan government lost another case to Flux in Strasbourg for a violation of the same article, being compelled to pay the newspaper some 5,000 euros for damages, costs, and expenses. So far, the Moldovan government lost roughly 115 cases at the European Court, paying the winning plaintiffs a total of some 4.5 million euros (73.5 million lei).