RIVADULLA DURÓ v. SPAIN DECISION
33. In the present case, the applicant’s conviction was based on the
finding that his messages on Twitter justified and glorified terrorism,
individuals convicted of being members of terrorist organisations, and
offences committed by them. The messages were also found to incite hatred
and enmity on various grounds. The domestic courts held that the applicant’s
messages were not covered by freedom of expression. In the Court’s view
this was not, as the applicant claimed, a criminal punishment for mere
disagreement with the political or social ideology of others, but rather, given
the way in which the disagreement was expressed and disseminated, it was a
punishment for incitement, provocation and the risk that third parties,
inflamed by the statements in question, might perpetrate actual violence
against specific institutions and groups just as the individuals convicted of
being members of terrorist organisations cited as an example had done.
The Court also observes that the applicant’s messages were easily and freely
available online and thus had the potential to reach a large number of people,
including those of a young age.
34. The Court takes note of the domestic decisions (see paragraph 7
above) and observes that in those decisions the courts found that the aim of
the applicant’s tweets was laudatio, a form of praise for persons
acknowledged as being members of violent terrorist groups, without any
parliamentary legitimacy, who had been sentenced by the courts for their
criminal activities, which had occurred not long ago. The terrorist attacks
committed by them were therefore still fresh in the country’s collective mind,
which justified an enhanced degree of regulation of statements relating to
them (see Jorge López, § 18; Perinçek, § 250; and Z.B. v. France, § 59, all
cited above).
35. Answering the question whether the messages could be seen as a
direct or indirect call or justification for violence, hatred or intolerance, the
domestic courts pointed to explicit references to violent or terrorist methods
(see paragraph 7 above). To sum up, the tweets communicated the general
idea that recourse to violence and terrorism was justified. The Court agrees
that those statements went far beyond what could be perceived as protest
messages, as the applicant described them, and beyond the acceptable limits
of criticism (see Jorge López, cited above, § 19).
36. Concerning the manner in which the statements were made, and their
capacity to lead to harmful consequences, the domestic judgments
highlighted the fact that the messages had been especially targeted at young
people, and that they had been conveyed to a wide audience through Twitter.
37. The Court reiterates that it is in the first place for the national
authorities, especially the courts, to interpret and apply domestic law and that
its task is only to review under Article 10 the decisions delivered by the
competent domestic courts pursuant to their power of appreciation. In so
doing, it must satisfy itself that the national authorities based their decisions
on an acceptable assessment of the relevant facts (see M’Bala M’Bala
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