26
DELFI AS v. ESTONIA JUDGMENT
relation to persons carrying on a professional activity, who are used to
having to proceed with a high degree of caution when pursuing their
occupation. They can on this account be expected to take special care in
assessing the risks that such activity entails (see Lindon, OtchakovskyLaurens and July, loc. cit., with further references to Cantoni v. France,
15 November 1996, § 35, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1996-V, and
Chauvy and Others v. France, no. 64915/01, §§ 43-45, ECHR 2004-VI).
73. The Court notes that in the present case the parties’ opinions differed
as to the question whether the interference with the applicant company’s
freedom of expression was “prescribed by law”. The applicant company
argued that the domestic law did not entail a positive obligation to premonitor content posted by third persons, and that its liability was limited
under the EU Directive on Electronic Commerce. The Government referred
to the pertinent provisions of the civil law and domestic case-law, under
which media publications were liable for their publications along with the
authors.
74. As regards the applicant company’s argument that its liability was
limited under the EU Directive on Electronic Commerce and the
Information Society Services Act, the Court notes that the domestic courts
found that the applicant company’s activities did not fall within the scope of
these acts. The Court reiterates in this context that it is not its task to take
the place of the domestic courts. It is primarily for the national authorities,
notably the courts, to resolve problems of interpretation of domestic
legislation. The Court’s role is confined to ascertaining whether the effects
of such an interpretation are compatible with the Convention (see, among
others, Pérez de Rada Cavanilles v. Spain, 28 October 1998, § 43, Reports
of Judgments and Decisions 1998-VIII).
75. The Court further notes that pursuant to the pertinent provisions of
the Constitution, the Civil Code (General Principles) Act and the
Obligations Act (see paragraphs 31 to 36 above), as interpreted and applied
by the domestic courts, the applicant company was deemed liable for the
publication of the defamatory comments. Although these provisions are
quite general and lack detail in comparison with, for example, the
Information Society Services Act (see paragraph 37 above), the Court is
satisfied that they, along with the pertinent case-law, made it clear that a
media publisher was liable for any defamatory statements made in its media
publication. The fact that in the present case publication of articles and
comments on an Internet portal was also found to amount to journalistic
activity and the administrator of the portal as an entrepreneur was deemed to
be a publisher can be seen, in the Court’s view, as application of the existing
tort law to a novel area related to new technologies (compare, for example,
Bernh Larsen Holding AS and Others v. Norway, no. 24117/08, § 126,
14 March 2013, where the Court saw no reason to question the domestic
court’s interpretation, according to which legal provisions originally