European court rejects journalist's complaint

TALLINN - It has taken the European Court for Human Rights almost three years to solve it, but the case of Estonian reporter Enno Tammer versus the Estonian Republic is finally at an end.

One of Estonia's most famous journalists, now working for the daily Eesti Paevaleht, Tammer was sued for defamation of Vilja Savisaar (born Laanaru), the wife of Center Party leader Edgar Savisaar, in 1996.

Tammer described Vilja Savisaar as "a woman who neglected her children" and "an adulteress" in the text of an interview with Ulo Russak, who wrote a book on her.

Edgar Savisaar sued Tammer for defamation and demanded that the daily Postimees, where Tammer used to work, publish an apology on the front page, an idea the newspaper's editors refused to consider.

Savisaar then sued Tammer himself. A Tallinn city court ruled the reporter had to pay the small fine of 220 kroons ($13).

Tammer twice appealed to the Estonian state court but in vain. In 1998, Tammer filed a complaint with the European Court for Human Rights and demanded that the Estonian state should refund his legal and moral expenses - a total of 1 million kroons.

The details of the judgment of the European court will be made public Feb. 6, but the main decision is already known.

Savisaar said that Tammer has been defeated again.

"I didn't expect such a great and complete victory," he told the Baltic News Service.

"This is where the European freedom of speech ends," Tammer wrote in a story on the results of the case published in Eesti Paevaleht. It was not Savisaar who won the case, but the Estonian state, he wrote. According to Toomas Sillaste, a legal secretary at the court, Tammer filed his complaint at the European court on Feb. 19, 1998. It was registered on May 14. Within a year, the court pronounced the complaint acceptable.

Sillaste said that one of the parties has the right to appeal the decision of the court within three months by applying to the grand chamber, which consists of 17 judges (there are seven judges in the regular chamber).

"If the case raises a serious question affecting the interpretation or application of the Convention [of Human Rights] or a serious issue of general importance, then the grand chamber would accept it," said Sillaste.

The European court handled 13 cases related to freedom of speech in 1999 and 2000, eight of which came from Turkey.

According to the court's Web site, the applications of only three Estonian residents who have sued their own country have so far been found to be acceptable. Apart from Tammer, one businessman from Tartu and one prisoner have filed complaints against Estonia.