Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: Freedom of Expression

  • Alberto Godioli

Humour and Symbolic Violence: Canal 8 v. France

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 […]

  • Ingrida Milkaitė

Open Minds, Open Hearts: Macatė v. Lithuania on Restricting and Labelling a Children’s Book that Depicts Same-Sex Families in a Positive Light

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 […]

  • Jacob van de Kerkhof

Peradze v Georgia: Vulgar Language, Public Morals and the Right to Peaceful Assembly

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 […]

  • Tommaso Virgili

Rabczewska v. Poland and blasphemy before the ECtHR: A neverending story of inconsistency

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 […]

  • Natalie Alkiviadou

Blasphemy and Choudhury v. the United Kingdom revisited in light of the attack on Rushdie

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, […]

  • Sofia Balzaretti

Political Satire and Sexist Stereotypes: A Critical Insight on the Case of Patrício Monteiro Telo de Abreu v. Portugal

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 […]

  • Natalie Alkiviadou

A Joke-Telling Lawyer: the Case of Simić v. Bosnia and Herzegovina

August 09, 2022

By Natalie Alkiviadou Introduction In May this year, the Fourth Section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held unanimously that holding a lawyer in contempt of court for a ‘caustic’ and ‘sarcastic’ comments amounted to a violation of his Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) right to freedom of […]

  • Yaman Akdeniz

The Calm Before the Storm? The Inadmissibility Decision in Wikimedia Foundation v. Turkey

April 18, 2022

On 24 March 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter ‘the European Court’) found the Wikimedia Foundation’s application inadmissible in relation to an access blocking decision involving Wikipedia, issued by a single judge in Turkey which lasted 2 years 8 months and 24 days. This article will provide a critical overview of the legal […]

  • Dirk Voorhoof

OOO Memo v. Russia: ECtHR prevents defamation claims by executive bodies

April 01, 2022

By Dirk Voorhoof, Human Rights Centre UGent and Legal Human Academy The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has recently delivered a judgment in which, for the first time, it refers to the notion of SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation). In its judgment of 15 March 2022 in the case of OOO Memo v. […]

  • Ayşe Bingöl Demir

Akdeniz and others v Turkey: The ECtHR adopts a regressive interpretation of victim status in cases concerning injunctions contra mundum

November 05, 2021

By Ayşe Bingöl Demir On 5 May 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) handed down yet another judgment against Turkey finding a violation of Article 10 – freedom of expression – of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘the Convention’). Akdeniz and others v. Turkey concerned a general ban on the dissemination […]

  • Tobias Mortier

Preventing disorder or silencing political opposition? On (the lack of) legitimate aims in Dareskizb Ltd v. Armenia

October 29, 2021

By Tobias Mortier A little political tension in an electoral context is not uncommon. However, the Armenian presidential elections in 2008 were nothing short of riotous. The Court has already dealt with numerous cases in which the events surrounding these elections were contested. For instance, in the case of Mushegh Saghatelyan v. Armenia, the Court […]

  • Ignatius Yordan Nugraha

‘It’s just a prank, bro!’ ZB v. France and a dark humour that turned sour

October 12, 2021

Ignatius Yordan Nugraha ‘September 11th Two Thousand-Fun!’ This phrase was uttered by Peter Griffin in a Family Guy episode, Back to the Woods, while pretending to be James Woods to smear his name, in a clear reference to the 9/11 attacks against the United States of America in 2001. This sort of joke may be […]

  • Juncal Montero Regules

Of statues and Santa Claus: does Article 10 protect hooliganism acts on a historical figure’s statue?

August 25, 2021

By Juncal Montero Regules, PhD fellow of Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) at the faculty of Law, Hasselt University On 6 April 2021, the Fourth Section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, the Court) held that a non-criminal conviction for placing Santa Claus accessories on a communist leader’s statue in the context of nation-wide […]

  • Xavier Farré Fabregat

Tőkés v. Romania: the struggle to identify the form and content that objectify a flag within the right to freedom of expression

August 09, 2021

By Xavier Farré Fabregat, research assistant at IPERG (Universitat de Barcelona) Introduction The political articulation of minorities in a centrist and hierarchical State can challenge pre-designed institutional responses, (over)stretching the limits of rights and duties held by citizens and the State. In the present case, the display of two minority flags by former politician Lázló […]

  • Guest Blogger

Demirtas v. Turkey: an exploration of the dissenting opinions and the Court’s oversights

April 19, 2021

By Hakan Kaplankaya, former Turkish diplomat, jurist, INSTITUDE member On December 22, 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR/the Court) delivered a landmark judgment against Turkey regarding the prolonged-detention of Selahattin Demirtaş, former leader of pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). Unlike the 2nd Section of the Court, which has mostly taken a restrained and […]

  • Guest Blogger

Behar and Budinova v. Bulgaria: The Rights of Others in Cases of Othering – Anti-victim bias in ECHR hate speech law?

April 15, 2021

By Margarita S. Ilieva, a strategic equality and human rights litigator with extensive experience in hate speech. She litigated Behar,  Budinova and Panayotova and Others v. Bulgaria, and other landmark cases like Yordanova v. Bulgaria and Karaahmed v. Bulgaria. The author was the architect of the cases discussed below, having brought them domestically in 2005 and lodged them with the […]

  • Guest Blogger

Yes, Prime Minister (bis): prosecution for satirical collage criticising Turkish prime minister’s foreign policy violated artist’s freedom of expression

March 19, 2021

Ronan Ó Fathaigh and Dirk Voorhoof On 2 February 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) unanimously found that the criminal proceedings against an artist’s satirical collage ‘insulting’ the Turkish Prime Minister violated his right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In an earlier case (Tuşalp […]

  • Guest Blogger

Is begging speech? Assessing Judge Keller’s concurring opinion in Lăcătuş v. Switzerland

February 12, 2021

By Dr Dimitrios Kagiaros, Assistant Professor in Public Law and Human Rights, University of Durham In its judgment in Lăcătuş v. Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) held that fining and imprisoning the applicant for begging amounted to a violation of Article 8 of the Convention. While the judgment raises many important issues […]

  • Guest Blogger

A Judgment to Be Reckoned with: Demirtaş v. Turkey (no. 2) [GC] and the ECtHR’s Stand Against Autocratic Legalism

February 05, 2021

By Ezgi Yildiz, Project Lead and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Global Governance Centre, the Graduate Institute, Geneva The recent Demirtaş v. Turkey (no. 2) [GC] judgment (application no. 14305/17) stands out not only for its substance but also its tone. The judgment provides an unequivocal solution to the protracted political crisis in Turkey concerning the […]

  • Guest Blogger

A misconceived balance by the domestic courts in Dupate v. Latvia

January 21, 2021

By Evangellos Orestis Vouvonikos (Phd in Public Law, University of Athens, Attorney in Law) Introduction On the 19th November 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its judgment in Dupate v. Latvia (application no. 18068/11). In this case, the ECtHR dealt with an alleged violation of respect of the applicant’s private life (Article 8 of European […]

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