LUXEMBOURG (CN) — The European Union’s highest court sided with a veteran journalist charged with insider trading on Tuesday, finding the media can disclose information to sources if necessary for research.
After he was fined 40,000 euros ($43,900) by French authorities, the European Court of Justice concluded Geoff Foster, who wrote the market report column for the British newspaper The Daily Mail, was allowed to discuss the content of upcoming columns with sources to substantiate rumors.
"A disclosure of inside information by a journalist is lawful where it must be regarded as being necessary for the exercise of his or her profession and as complying with the principle of proportionality," the Luxembourg-based court wrote, finding that research and investigative activities are protected by the freedom of the press.
Foster, now retired, was fined by the French stock market regulator, known as AMF, in 2018 for allegedly telling sources about rumors he had heard about potential takeover bids. AMF cited two columns Foster had written, one in 2011 about luxury brand Hermès and one in 2012 about oil company Maurel & Prom. Both columns included rumors about takeover offers that were substantially higher than the companies’ value.
According to AMF, Foster shared information about the takeover bids with sources before the columns were published and those sources bought stock before publication and then sold after the price had risen.
After the 2018 hearing when he was convicted of insider trading, Foster told the court: “In my 40 years’ experience, 27 years working for the Daily Mail, I definitively wouldn’t tell anybody what was going to be in my market report. It would have been a serious breach of my ethics and professional principles.”
The case was referred to the EU's top court by the Paris Court of Appeal after Foster fought the conviction. The United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority turned over six years of calls, including the phone numbers and names of Foster's sources, to the AMF as part of their investigation, upsetting media advocates.
“The FCA’s decision to reveal a journalist’s confidential sources by submitting his phone records over many years – which were not even requested by the AMF – is an equally worrying aspect of the case,” a spokesperson for Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers said at the time.
A 15-judge panel of the Court of Justice's Grand Chamber ruled Tuesday that EU law protects the right of journalists to do their job, and part of that work may involve disclosing information in an effort to verify it. The court cautioned, however, that disclosing insider information could only be done when necessary and within the principle of proportionality, which protects the rights of third parties.
Follow @mollyquell
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
