CCPR/C/139/D/3095/2018 social media network VKontakte to an article entitled “Idiocy and fake honour to the victims of war in a capital city gymnasium”.13 The author claims that the State party violated his right to freedom of expression as it failed to justify the limitation of his freedom to distribute information as provided by article 19 (3) of the Covenant. The State party argued that the restrictive measures did not contravene the Covenant since they were applied in accordance with the Law on Countering Extremism. 7.3 The Committee notes that the issue before it is to determine whether the restrictions imposed were justified under article 19 (3) of the Covenant. In that respect, it recalls its general comment No. 34 (2011), in which it stated, inter alia, that freedom of expression is essential for any society and a foundation stone for every free and democratic society.14 It notes that article 19 (3) of the Covenant allows restrictions on freedom of expression, including on the freedom to impart information and ideas, only to the extent that they are provided by law and only if they are necessary (a) for respect of the rights and reputations of others; or (b) for the protection of national security or public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals. Finally, any restriction on freedom of expression must not be overbroad in nature, that is, it must be the least intrusive among the measures which might achieve the relevant protective function and proportionate to the interest to be protected. 15 The Committee recalls that the onus is on the State party to demonstrate that the restrictions on the author’s rights under article 19 of the Covenant were necessary and proportionate. 16 7.4 The Committee notes the State party’s submission that in the present case, the restrictions of the right to freedom of expression for the protection of national security or of public order were governed by the Law on Countering Extremism (see para. 4.3 above). The Committee observes that according to article 1 of the Law, “extremist materials are informational products (printed, audio, audiovisual and other informational messages and/or materials, posters, banners and other visual agitation, and advertising products) intended for public use, distributed publicly or distributed in any way, containing calls for extremist activities, or promoting such activities, and recognized as extremist materials by a court decision”. The Committee also notes that when convicting the author, the national courts referred to the decision of the Central District Court of Minsk of 10 November 2016 by which all “informational products” (which include posts to websites and social media platforms) published on vk.com/rdbelarus17 were declared to be extremist materials and were included in the State List of Extremist Materials.18 7.5 The Committee notes that the author posted a link to the article, which had been published on 26 November 2016, after the court decision finding all the informational products on the website to be extremist materials had been delivered. The Committee also notes that on 10 November 2016, the Central District Court of Minsk did not examine the article shared by the author to assess and determine its nature. The Committee observes that, as acknowledged by the State party (see para. 4.4 above), all the informational products (posts) that were published on the mentioned websites before and after the delivery of the court’s decision of 10 November 2016 are automatically declared extremist materials without an individualized assessment of each informational product (post). 7.6 The Committee recalls that any restrictions on the operation of websites, blogs or any other Internet-based, electronic or other such information dissemination systems, including 13 14 15 16 17 18 GE.24-01139 See https://revbel.org/2016/11/marazm-i-pokazushnaya-pochest-pogibshim-v-vojne-v-stolichnojgimnazii/. See para. 2. See the Committee’s general comment No. 34 (2011), para. 34. See, for example, Androsenko v. Belarus (CCPR/C/116/D/2092/2011), para. 7.3. Where “rd” stands for “revolutionary action” in Belarusian, with the name of the public group being “Revolutionary Action”. The public group on VKontakte represents the external website of “Revolutionary Action”, the latter being located at https://revbel.org. According to the information in the public group on VKontakte and on the external website, it is “an organization uniting members of the anarchist movement”. The article, shared by the author, draws attention to the formalism of a school event held in honour of veterans of the Second World War and to a lack of reforms carried out by the local authorities. State List of Extremist Materials, Ministry of Information of Belarus, available at http://mininform.gov.by/documents/respublikanskiy-spisok-ekstremistskikh-materialov/. 5