"The Vaccine Warriors" was shown on SVT in December 2020. In the film, a vaccine-critical woman was secretly filmed by journalists who had assumed false identities.
Right to Private Life
The woman believed that the methods constituted an infringement of her right to private life, and sued the state, which she claimed had violated her rights under the European Convention.
In the Stockholm District Court, she was awarded damages of 100,000 kronor.
The District Court found that the documentary constituted an infringement of the woman's right to private life, and pointed out that there is no mechanism in Sweden to weigh the right to private life against the freedom of expression of journalists.
The lack of such a mechanism meant, according to the District Court, that the state had violated its positive obligations under the European Convention.
The State Has Not Failed
However, the Svea Court of Appeal does not believe that the state has failed in its obligations under the European Convention.
"The Court of Appeal believes that the state has provided sufficient and effective protection for the infringement of the woman's rights through, for example, the existing possibility of bringing a libel suit and the review that can be conducted by the Press Council. The state has therefore not failed in its obligations. This means that the woman is not entitled to damages," says Freddy Larsson, Court of Appeal judge and rapporteur in the case, in a comment.
As the woman has lost, she will have to reimburse the state for its legal costs in both the District Court and the Court of Appeal.
