Babiniotis Dictionary court case

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The court case of the Babiniotis Dictionary (Greek: Υπόθεση Λεξικoύ Μπαμπινιώτη) was fought in Greece over the legality of the publication of a Modern Greek dictionary that included a definition of the word "Bulgarian" (referring to a person or persons).

Athens University, managed the publication of a dictionary
in 1998, named Dictionary of Modern Greek, more commonly known as Babiniotis Dictionary. The dictionary was published by the Lexicology Centre.

For the word "Bulgarian" the dictionary provided a dual definition, first its normal use referring to persons descended from

PAOK
football team.

On 23 May 1998 a person took legal action asking for the second definition to be deleted. The courts accepted the case with number 18134/1998 and agreed that the obscene definition had no place in a dictionary, so the publisher had to delete the second definition from every unsold copy of the dictionary or otherwise it couldn't be legally sold anymore. This was criticized by some people, including some law professors, and later the court case was reviewed by a higher court. On 22 April 1999 the higher court, with case number 13/1999, decided to overturn the decision of the lower court.