20 RUBINS v. LATVIA JUDGMENT consequences, and the severity of the measure. As the Government also challenged the true motives of the applicant’s statements, the Court shall include it in its assessment. (i) Public interest 83. The Government argued that no public interest was involved in the email and that it had been a personal threat against the Rector. 84. The Court considers that the content of the email cannot be assessed in isolation and that particular attention should be paid to what information the applicant was going to disclose and did actually disclose. Firstly, the Court notes that in his email the applicant referred to shortcomings identified by the State Audit Office. He also raised an issue about cases of plagiarism at the University which had been confirmed by the report of a professional association. The truthfulness and authenticity of both pieces of information were not contested by the parties either before the domestic court or before the Court. Secondly, even though in reaching its conclusion that the applicant’s actions had been unethical the domestic court referred to the publication of his views by LETA (see paragraph 24 above), it did not provide any reasoning as to whether the information was true (see, mutatis mutandis, Frankowicz v. Poland, no. 53025/99, § 50, 16 December 2008). The Court notes in this regard that the validity of the information which was later published by LETA was not contested by the University in any defamation proceedings. 85. The Court reiterates that the University was a State-financed education establishment. It appears that the issues invoked by the applicant were of some public interest and that the truthfulness of the information was not challenged by the parties. Nevertheless it is apparent from the appellate court’s judgment that these aspects – the public interest and truthfulness of the information – were not assessed at all. (ii) The applicant’s motives 86. The Government further argued that the applicant’s motives had been purely selfish, namely to keep his post at the University. Moreover, as recognised by the domestic courts, the applicant had known that the requests made in the email were unlawful (see paragraph 22 above). 87. The Court observes that the domestic court explicitly invoked the whistle-blowing protection clause enshrined in the Labour Law and touched upon this question, albeit briefly (see paragraph 26 above). The Court could understand the Government’s argument regarding the applicant’s motives as relevant if the case was one of the protection of whistle-blowers. However, the Court does not consider that to be the case. The Court examines whether in view of the applicant’s freedom of expression exercised in the context of a labour dispute, the national courts have carried out the appropriate balancing exercise. In this regard, the Government’s arguments about the