The Bulletin on the “Latest developments in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights on Freedom of Expression” constitutes a unique tool for sharing information on new trends and developments in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR, the Court), and at the same time, it contributes to further improvement of knowledge in the field of freedom of expression and freedom of the media of legal professionals from Western Balkans, and beyond.
Published in the framework of the joint European Union and Council of Europe Horizontal Facility II programme, this Bulletin analyses the period February-July 2021 in which the Court has delivered a considerable number of relevant judgments on freedom of expression and the protection and safety of journalists. These judgments concerned different areas of Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (the ECHR; the Convention). They either reaffirmed the principles which are part of the well-established case law or reinforced and further clarified already set standards in this field.
In the selected judgments which are elaborated in this Bulletin, the Court deals with the wider aspects of freedom of expression, with a focus on extending the scope of Article 10 to cover non-violent performance art protests, as a manifestation of political speech; advertising which contributes to a public debate concerning issues of general interest and might be considered as contrary to public morals and religious values; and restrictions on freedom of expression online, when it turns into offensive hate speech and incitement to violence.
When it comes to media freedom, the presented cases discuss the responsibilities of journalists in exercising their profession when carrying out news-gathering activities; access to information on matters of public interest and to official documents; the protection of journalistic sources in relation to the use of surveillance technologies and in mass surveillance operations, in particular; as well as the involvement of media outlets in electoral campaigning online.
All in all, the cases selected have underlined the obligation of the States parties to the Convention to uphold the Convention standards in line with the principle of subsidiarity, while in some cases the authorities are urged to contribute to the national implementation of the Convention by taking general measures to strengthen the existing legislative framework and to advance their administrative and judicial practices, with a view to preventing the occurrence of similar violations of the freedom of expression in the future.
The Bulletin is available in English, Albanian, Bosnian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Serbian and is prepared within the framework of the joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and its regional action on “Freedom of expression and freedom of the media in South-East Europe (JUFREX)“.
