A court in Leuven has sentenced two Spanish cameramen to pay €3,500 each in damages to Catalan politicians Carles Puigdemont and Antoni Comín.
The men were fined for unlawfully obtaining and publishing confidential information during an N-VA press conference 30 and 31 January 2018 at OH Leuven’s football stadium.
Puigdemont was scheduled to speak at the press conference but was absent, leaving former Catalan Minister of Health Antoni Comín to address the event.
During the conference, Comín received a text message from Puigdemont, expressing his intent to leave politics.
N-VA's Lorin Parys (L) listens to Catalan leader in exile Carles Puigdemont on a screen, addressing a speech to the New Year's reception of the Leuven branch of N-VA Flemish nationalist party, in Heverlee, Leuven, Tuesday 30 January 2018. Credit: Belga
A journalist captured a brief moment of the text on Comín’s phone, and its content was later published in the Spanish media, causing a political stir in Spain. Comín described the message as potentially "the end of the independence movement."
The journalists' lawyers argued that the prosecution had exceeded a reasonable time limit and sought acquittal on the grounds of press freedom. They claimed that publishing politically relevant information is a journalistic duty and that filming the message served the public interest.
However, the Leuven court dismissed these arguments. The ruling stated that the information was confidential and part of Puigdemont and Comín’s private lives, "despite addressing a significant public issue (the Catalan independence movement)."
The court judged that in this case, the right to privacy outweighed the right to press freedom.
