A court in Riga awarded a top Latvian journalist over $185,000 in damages Friday after recordings of her telephone calls were leaked to the media.
Ilze Jaunalksne, presenter of Latvian TV's top current-affairs programme, De Facto, was awarded 100,000 lats ($185,185) in moral damages and 243 lats in expenses from the finance ministry and inland revenue department.
Jaunalksne's mobile phone was tapped at the request of the financial police, a branch of the finance ministry, in December 2005. The operation was sanctioned by a judge.
In March 2006 Jaunalksne broke the story of a vote-buying scandal that apparently involved the leaders of several governing political parties. The scandal led to the resignation of a senior minister.
Shortly before parliamentary elections in October, tapes of some of Jaunalksne's conversations were leaked to a newspaper close to government parties. The paper claimed that the tapes proved Jaunalksne was actively plotting with opposition parties.
However, subsequent reports on TV and in rival newspapers accused Jaunalksne's enemies of organising a smear campaign against her, as revenge for her coverage of the March scandal. The European Federation of Journalists also intervened, calling on the government to find those responsible for the leak.
In the wake of the affair, prosecutors launched a criminal case against four financial police officers, and the judge who authorized the wiretap was suspended. Jaunalksne launched a civil suit demanding 300,000 lats in compensation for moral damages.
Friday's judgment can be appealed within 20 days of its publication on March 9, the LETA news agency reported.
