VLADIMIR KHARITONOV v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT
and facilitates the dissemination of information in general. Article 10 of the
Convention guarantees “everyone” the freedom to receive and impart
information and ideas. It applies not only to the content of information but
also to the means of its dissemination, for any restriction imposed on the
latter necessarily interferes with that freedom (see Ahmet Yıldırım, cited
above, §§ 48-54).
34. The applicant has been the owner and administrator of a website
featuring content relating to the production and distribution of electronic
books, from news to analytical reports to practical guides. The website has
existed since 2008 and has been updated several times a week. It has been
stored on the servers of a US-based company offering accessible shared
web-hosting solutions. The applicant’s website has a unique domain name –
“www.digital-books.ru” – but shares a numerical network address (“IP
address”) with many other websites hosted on the same server.
35. In December 2012, the applicant discovered that access to his
website had been blocked. This was an incidental effect of a State agency’s
decision to block access to another website which was hosted on the same
server and had the same IP address as the applicant’s website. The Court
reiterates that measures blocking access to websites are bound to have an
influence on the accessibility of the Internet and, accordingly, engage the
responsibility of the respondent State under Article 10 (see Ahmet Yıldırım,
cited above, § 53).
36. The applicant was not aware of the proceedings against the
third-party website, the grounds for the blocking measure or its duration. He
did not have knowledge of, or control over, when, if ever, the measure
would be lifted and access to his website restored. He was unable to share
the latest developments and news about electronic publishing, while visitors
to his website were prevented from accessing the entire website content. It
follows that the blocking measure in question amounted to “interference by
a public authority” with the right to receive and impart information, since
Article 10 guarantees not only the right to impart information but also the
right of the public to receive it (see Ahmet Yıldırım, cited above, §§ 51 and
55, and Cengiz and Others, cited above, § 56). Such interference will
constitute a breach of Article 10 unless it is “prescribed by law”, pursues
one or more of the legitimate aims referred to in Article 10 § 2 and is
“necessary in a democratic society” to achieve those aims.
37. The Court reiterates that the expression “prescribed by law” not only
refers to a statutory basis in domestic law, but also requires that the law be
both adequately accessible and foreseeable, that is, formulated with
sufficient precision to enable the individual to foresee the consequences
which a given action may entail. In matters affecting fundamental rights it
would be contrary to the rule of law, one of the basic principles of a
democratic society enshrined in the Convention, for a legal discretion
granted to the executive to be expressed in terms of an unfettered power.
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