EU: ECtHR on elected officials and their right of free speech
Tobias Raab
On 12 January 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decided that in an Ukrainian case of defamation proceedings, domestic courts had disregarded the high requirements of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to restrict political speech (case no. 19382/08)
The legal dispute started after the defendant, the president of an Ukrainian political party, read a letter out loadly at an event with more than forty other local party members. The letter included a couple of very critical statements about one of the party members, the plaintiff. The letter stated that the plaintiff destroyed…
