The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the public's right to freedom of expression outweighed the right to privacy of two German individuals who had sought the anonymization of personal information contained in media reports of the individuals' criminal convictions. The two individuals had been convicted of the murder of a popular German actor in 1991 and, in 2000, they had sought to have the case reopened. The media had reported on the application to have the case reopened at the time, but in 2007, the individuals sought an anonymization of those media reports. After the German Courts had held that the individuals were not entitled to the anonymization on the grounds that it infringed the right of the public to be informed of matters of public interest, the individuals approached the European Court of Human Rights. The Court upheld the German Federal Court's finding that there is an ongoing public interest in events that occurred in the past, and concluded that the refusal to anonymize the media reports did not infringe the individuals' right to privacy.