European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

Participants:
Egbert Myjer - judge of the ECHR
Roeland Böcker - government agent of the Netherlands to the ECHR
Rick Lawson - professor of European law
Jolien Schukking - advocate
Martin Kuijer - senior legal adviser on human rights law at the Netherlands Ministry of Justice
Liselot Egmond - clerk of the Council of State
 

Case:

Harry S. is a journalist. He has written an article in a popular magazine 'De nieuwe Opblazer' about a sex scandal involving a well-known criminal and a judge. The article includes pictures, which allow the two people in question to be identified.

As a result of the article the judge is suspended, pending an investigation. She says that she knows the well-known criminal from school, and that she has only seen him once since then, at a school reunion. She strongly denies ever having had a relationship with him. Feeling that her reputation has been damaged, she reports Harry S. to the police and he is charged with defamation.

Harry records what is happening at court on his weblog. He calls the judges 'Neanderthals' (IQ-nullussen), 'a bunch of morons who don't know anything about justice' (een stelletje randdebielen die van het recht geen kaas hebben gegeten), both in his log and during the trial, and accuses them of favouritism. The court warns Harry on a number of occasions that his outbursts are not appropriate. Following yet another unsolicited tirade he is removed from the court for breaching the peace and is remanded in police custody. The court finds the applicant guilty of the offence charged and sentences him to a fine of € 1500, and a special condition is imposed forbidding him from making any remarks in public about the judge in question.

The judgement is upheld by the Supreme Court. Harry will not give up and lodges an application with the European Court of Human Rights, saying that his right to a fair trial has been violated (article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights), as has his right to freedom of expression (article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights). The European Press Council, as always protecting press freedom as guaranteed in article 10 of the Convention, has intervened in the case as a third party.