Vienna, 14 January 2018
The South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) condemned the actions of Eleni Loizidou, a suspended senior state attorney in Cyprus, after she sued the daily Politis (http://politis.com.cy) . Previously, Loizidou was also the head of the body for extradition requests.
A Russian website revealed emails sent from her personal Gmail account connected allegedly to extradition cases of Russian citizens . According to the web page Cyprus Mail, she sued the daily Politis in December 2017 after the paper published these emails and related information, and she is asking for damages between 500,000 to 2 million EUR for violation of her right to privacy.
However, the journalist community in Cyprus and the Personal Data Commissioner agree that no laws prohibit the publication or republication of personal data which is of public interest. Also the Committee for Journalistic Ethics (EDD) supported the newspaper and this investigation by media.
After that in January 2018 a court in Nicosia approved a decree which was requested by Loizidou, and which forbids Politis to publish emails from her private email account.
SEEMO is a network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South, East and Central Europe and its press freedom work is supported by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) project, as part of a grant by the European Commission.