Strasbourg - The European Court of Human Rights has condemned France for violating the right to "freedom of expression" in banning a book by a Basque cultural association.
The association, Ekin, published the book in 1987 entitled Euskadi at War, an account of the Basque conflict that appeared in various languages and in various European countries.
A French ministerial decree on April 29th, 1988, banned the sale, distribution or circulation of the book in the country on the grounds that it "promoted separatism" and "represented a potential danger to public order". The court awarded the association, based in Bayonne, south-west France, 300,000 francs (£25,000) in damages and 58,500 (£4,900) francs for costs.