KALDA v. ESTONIA JUDGMENT
5
libraries, and nor were detainees prevented from contacting the Council of
Europe by post. The Supreme Court concluded that the restriction
preventing
detainees
from
accessing
the
Internet
sites
www.oiguskantsler.ee, www.riigikogu.ee and www.coe.ee was one of “low
intensity”; the Supreme Court gave more weight to the aim sought by that
restriction. It considered that permitting detainees extensive use of the
Internet would increase the likelihood of prison authorities losing control
over detainees’ activities, as it could not be completely excluded that via the
Internet sites in question detainees could use the Internet for other,
unauthorised purposes. Accordingly, the impugned restriction was in
conformity with the Constitution.
18. Four judges out of eighteen delivered a dissenting opinion according
to which the applicant should have been granted access to all three of the
Internet sites in question. They considered that the use of the Internet sites
in question did not generally pose a threat to public safety and was in
conformity with the aims of imprisonment. It was unclear what additional
costs the State would have to bear, since – in line with the applicable law –
prisons were equipped with computers specially adapted to allow detainees
access to the official databases of legislation and judicial decisions, and the
prison service exercised supervision over the use of such resources. The
information available on the Internet sites in question aided the exercising
of the right of recourse to the courts. While it was true that detainees could
also avail themselves of the right to make a request for information, this was
a more time-consuming avenue and, particularly in the case of the Internet
site of the Chancellor of Justice, required knowledge of which information
was available on such Internet sites. No request for information under the
Public Information Act (Avaliku teabe seadus) could be made to the Council
of Europe Information Office in Tallinn. The rulings of the European Court
of Human Rights available in the HUDOC database – which was accessible
to detainees – were not in Estonian (unlike the unofficial translations
published on the Internet site www.coe.ee), and it could not be presumed
that detainees had sufficient command of English or French to be able to
read them. The printed works of the Council of Europe that were available
in prison libraries did not include all the information that was published on
the Internet site of the Council of Europe Information Office in Tallinn.
Thus, the four dissenting judges concluded that the restriction in question
was unconstitutional.
II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC LAW
19. Article 44 § 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia (Eesti
Vabariigi põhiseadus) provides that everyone has the right to freely obtain
information disseminated for public use.
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