ECtHR's decision in favour of "Caucasian Knot" confirms right to criticize authorities

Authorities should be tolerant of constructive criticism and conscientiously perform their functions, experts have stated in their comments on the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the complaint of the "Caucasian Knot" in connection with the libel case initiated by the administration of the Volgograd Region.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 15, the ECtHR satisfied the complaint of the "Caucasian Knot" and found violations in the case on the lawsuit lodged by the administration of the Volgograd Region on libel and "protection of business reputation."

According to Anita Soboleva, Associate Professor at the Law Department of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, the notion of "business reputation" should not apply to authorities' activities. "Business reputation suffers when someone wrote badly about a commercial enterprise, and its profits have fallen." "Here, there can be no business reputation, because the administration does not conduct any business. In the ECtHR's practice, there was such an approach before that state authorities cannot file claims for the protection of their honour and dignity, because only citizens have honour and dignity, while only legal entities have business reputation. Authorities must be tolerant of any criticism. And if they go to court after any criticism, then there will be no criticism; and authorities will fail with their functions properly, because there will be no control from the society," Ms Soboleva has explained.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 16, 2022 at 00:55 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.