Journalist who challenged National Judicial and Legal Service Commission (CSM) decision affecting his reputation should have applied to civil rather than administrative courts.

The Court declared the application in the case of Curea v. Romania inadmissible.

The case concerned a journalist who complained of the impossibility of bringing administrative proceedings to challenge a decision of the National Judicial and Legal Service Commission (Consiliul Superior al Magistraturii – CSM). The decision had been given to protect a prosecutor’s professional reputation following the publication of an article by the applicant, but the applicant alleged that his own professional reputation had been damaged as a result. After his administrative application was rejected, he applied to the Court under Article 6 of the Convention (right of access to a court).

The Court pointed out that the CSM procedure for the protection of reputation concerned judges and prosecutors only and was intended to preserve their independence and impartiality, thereby ensuring public confidence in the justice system. In the case at hand, the CSM’s decision had related to a prosecutor’s professional conduct and had no legal effect on the applicant, a journalist, who could assert his own civil rights before the competent civil courts.

• Press release
• Press release (in Romanian)