May 20, 2025
By Hanim Schnabel In P v. Poland, the ECtHR ruled by 4 votes to 3 that the dismissal of a homosexual secondary school teacher for, inter alia, writing a blog for adults with some sexually explicit content violated Article 10 of the Convention. Without taking a stance on whether the dismissal actually pursued a legitimate […]
April 11, 2025
By Koen Lemmens Liability for what others said on social media remains a complicated issue as a recent ECtHR judgment illustrates once again. In Alexandru Pătraşcu v. Roumania, the Court had to assess the applicant’s civil conviction for statements made by him, but also for statements made by other persons, on his Facebook page. According […]
March 07, 2025
Dr. Natalie Alkiviadou On the 7th January 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR/Court) delivered the judgment of Minasyan and Others v. Armenia (2025). It addressed critical issues of hate speech, discrimination and the state’s positive obligations under Article 8 (the right to respect for private and family life) in conjunction with Article 14 […]
January 28, 2025
by Charlotte de Meeûs Introduction On 12 November 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) handed down its judgment in the case Associated Newspapers Limited v. the United Kingdom. The ECtHR assessed the compatibility of the recoverability of legal costs including success fees arising from conditional fee arrangements (‘CFAs’) and after-the-event (‘ATE’) insurance premiums […]
August 27, 2024
by Dirk Voorhoof 1. – Introduction In its judgment of the 4th June 2024 in the case of Sokolovskiy v. Russia the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) dealt with the issue of religious hate speech as a criminal offence interfering with the right to freedom of expression and information under Article 10 ECHR (see […]
July 12, 2024
On 20 June 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, Court) published its judgment in Boronyák v. Hungary. The case concerned a fine imposed by the domestic courts on the applicant, Mr. Boronyák, for disclosing confidential information concerning the terms of his contract with a private company. The ECtHR unanimously held that there was […]
June 07, 2024
By Koen Lemmens Freedom of expression raises difficult legal questions for people occupying special positions in society. As a matter of principle they enjoy freedom of expression, but the specific position in which they find themselves may have an impact on the scope of that freedom. Judges are an example of a category of speakers […]
May 31, 2024
By Eleni Polymenopoulou On February 2nd 2024, the European Court for Human Rights (ECtHR) issued Auray v France, an interesting judgment condemning France for restricting freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and protesters’ freedom of movement. The judgment, which is for now available in French only, became final on May 5th and builds on the […]
March 22, 2024
Dr. Alice Dejean de la Bâtie French criminal law forbids anyone to disclose or even publicly mention the name of the victim of sexual assault without their express written permission. Anyone. Ever. Even the defendants themselves. Even before any trial has taken place. Even if the victim’s name has previously been disclosed countless times. Can […]
March 01, 2024
By Dr Donatas Murauskas Should anyone be left to the mercy of trial by media? ‘Never ever. Under no circumstances,’ underlines judge Kūris in his elaborated dissenting opinion in Mesić v. Croatia (no. 2), criticising the Chamber reasoning that sets ‘a very low standard for the protection of personality rights’. The case-law develops, and new contexts […]
February 02, 2024
by Dániel Karsai[1] and Viktor Kazai[2] In October 2023, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in Ikotity and Others v Hungary and found that the Speaker’s refusal to grant three opposition Member of Parliaments (MPs) permission to use posters during a parliamentary debate, and the sanctions they received for having used the […]
December 19, 2023
by Babette De Naeyer Pablo Rivadulla Duró is a Spanish rapper, better known as Pablo Hasél, who was criminally convicted for writing several insulting tweets, in which he, for example, called the royal family ‘parasites’ and a ‘criminal gang’. He also wrote an offensive rap song, in which he accused King Emeritus Juan Carlos I […]
December 05, 2023
by Ignatius Yordan Nugraha Does the right to freedom of expression imply the right to use posters in parliament to strengthen the point of your expression? In Ikotity and Others v. Hungary, notified in writing on 5 October 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) seems to be sceptical of such a conception. At […]
October 03, 2023
By Harriet Ní Chinnéide In the wake of the digital revolution, questions surrounding the right to privacy and the right to be forgotten have come to the fore. With the digitalisation of press archives, what once required extensive archival research can now be discovered – even sometimes accidentally – through a simple online search. This […]
April 07, 2023
by Alberto Godioli In her concurring opinion to Patrício Monteiro Telo de Abreu v. Portugal (No. 42713/15, judgment of 7 June 2022), Judge Julia Motoc highlighted the importance of recognising the harm caused by what she referred to as ‘symbolic violence’ against women – namely the circulation and reinforcement of disparaging sexist stereotypes (see Balzaretti 2022 for a more detailed […]
March 31, 2023
By Ingrida Milkaitė On 23 January 2023, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR found that restricting and labelling a book of fairy tales as harmful to children solely because of LGBTI content breached Article 10 ECHR. For the first time in the Court’s case-law, Macatė v. Lithuania (app. no. 61435/19) assessed restrictions imposed on literature […]
February 28, 2023
by Jacob van de Kerkhof On 15 December 2022, the European Court of Human Rights rendered its judgment in Peradze et al v Georgia, concerning 7 protestors who were arrested at a demonstration against a construction project for holding banners with lewd language (along the lines of ‘[construction project], my cock’). The applicants received a minor administrative […]
October 21, 2022
by Tommaso Virgili In the case Rabczewska v. Poland, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that the conviction of a Polish woman due to her blasphemous statements against the Bible violated her rights under Article 10 of the Convention. This case stands in contrast with the recent E.S. v. Austria, where the Court […]
September 27, 2022
By Natalie Alkiviadou Salman Rushdie Internationally acclaimed, Indian-born writer Salman Rushdie has written a range of novels and stories on social, historical and philosophical issues. He is a controversial figure mostly because of his fourth novel, ‘The Satanic Verses’. The book was published in 1988 and was heavily criticised by some Muslim leaders as blasphemous, […]
September 14, 2022
By Sofia Balzaretti Introduction In the case Patrício Monteiro Telo de Abreu v. Portugal, the Strasbourg Court held that the judicial domestic authorities had not taken sufficient account of the context in which Patricio Monteiro Telo de Abreu, the applicant, had published satire cartoons depicting sexist stereotypes on his blog and that they had thus […]