In its judgment of 15 March 2022 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) expressed its concerns about the risk for democracy of court proceedings instituted with a view to limiting public participation, interfering with the freedom of expression by media, journalists, or other public watchdogs. This is the first time the ECtHR has referred to the notion of SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation). The case concerns a civil defamation suit brought by a Russian regional state body against a media company. The media company was ordered to publish on its website a retraction to the effect that it had published false statements, tarnishing the claimant’s business reputation. The ECtHR found that although civil defamation proceedings were open to private or public companies to protect their reputation, this could not be the case for a large, taxpayer-funded, executive body like the claimant in this case. It decided that the interference with the media company’s right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was not justified by a “legitimate aim”, as the Russian regional state body could not rely on the “protection of reputation and rights of others” as listed in Article 10 § 2 ECHR. The ECtHR found that allowing executive bodies to bring defamation proceedings against members of the media places an excessive and disproportionate burden on the media and could have an inevitable chilling effect on the media in the performance of their task of purveyor of information and public watchdog.
This post by Dirk Voorhoof, Human Rights Centre UGent and Legal Human Academy, originally appeared on the Strasbourg Observers blog and is adapted for the database with permission and thanks.