5.  The Christian Democratic People’s Party (“the CDPP”) is a political party in the Republic of Moldova which was represented in Parliament and was in opposition at the time of the events. 6.  On 3 December 2003 the applicant party applied to the Chişinău Municipal Council for an authorisation to hold a protest demonstration in the Square of the Great National Assembly, in front of the Government’s building, on 25 January 2004. According to the application, the organisers intended to express views on the functioning of the democratic institutions in Moldova, the respect for human rights and the Moldo-Russian conflict in Transdniestria. 7.  On 20 January 2004 the Chişinău Municipal Council rejected the applicant party’s request on the ground that “it had convincing evidence of the fact that during the meeting, there will be calls to a war of agression, ethnic hatred and public violence”. 8.  The applicant party challenged the refusal in court and argued, inter alia, that the reasons relied upon by the Municipal Council were entirely baseless. 9.  On 23 January 2004 the Chişinău Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant party’s action. The court found that the Municipal Council’s refusal to authorise the CDPP’s demonstration was justified because the leaflets disseminated by it contained such slogans as “Down with Voronin’s totalitarian regime” and “Down with Putin’s occupation regime”. According to the Court of Appeal, these slogans constituted a call to a violent overthrow of the constitutional regime and to hatred towards the Russian people. In this context, the court recalled that during a previous demonstration organised by the applicant party to protest against the presence of the Russian military in Transdniestria, the protesters burned a picture of the President of the Russian Federation and a Russian flag. 10.  The applicant party appealed against the above decision arguing, inter alia, that the impugned slogans could not have reasonably been interpreted as a call to a violent overthrow of the Government or as a call to ethnic hatred and that the refusal to authorise the meeting constituted a breach of its rights guaranteed by Articles 10 and 11 of the Convention. 11.  On 21 April 2004 the Supreme Court of Justice dismissed the applicant party’s appeal and confirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal.