Moscow , Oct 23 (AFP) A journalist who exposed radioactive pollution by the Russian navy and was imprisoned on spying charges blasted the European Court of Human Rights today for ruling that his sentence was justified.

Former military journalist Grigory Pasko, who was described as a"prisoner of conscience"by the human rights group Amnesty International for the case, called the ECHR&aposs ruling a blow to freedom of speech in Russia.

"If there will be no freedom of speech for us military journalists, there will soon be no freedom of speech for anyone in Russia," Pasko told Echo of Moscow radio.

On Thursday the Strasbourg-based tribunal published its decision rejecting Pasko&aposs complaint, in which he charged that Russia had violated his right to freedom of expression with a politically motivated prosecution.

Pasko was a reporter for the Russian navy in-house newspaper Boevaya Vakhta when in 1993 he filmed footage of the navy dumping radioactive waste into the Sea of Japan.