CASE OF TERENTYEV v. RUSSIA
Violation of Article 10 - Freedom of expression -{General} (Article 10-1 - Freedom of expression)
Alena Poláčková;Branko Lubarda;Dmitry Dedov;Georgios A. Serghides;Helena Jäderblom;Luis López Guerra;Pere Pastor Vilanova
5. The applicant was born in 1954 and lives in Syktyvkar, the Komi Republic. He is a musician and a jazz critic. 6. On 31 December 2007 the applicant published an article on his personal website about a local jazz festival and its president, Mr Y. The article contained a detailed description of the event and scathing criticism of Mr Y. Using various derivatives of Mr Y.’s surname, the article mocked his professional qualities. The jazz festival was described as being “a shoddy piece of work” and Mr Y.’s delivery “crappy”. 7. Mr Y. sued the applicant in defamation, arguing that the article was insulting and harmful to his reputation. 8. On 14 August 2008 the Syktyvkar Town Court found the applicant liable in defamation. The judgment consisted of the text of the article, a summary of the relevant domestic law, a two-page reproduction of the extracts from the article which had been mentioned in the statement of claim and two paragraphs of conclusions. They stated: “Using a distorted form of the plaintiff’s patronymic and last name ... breaches the plaintiff’s right to a name and to a good name, which is unacceptable under the law. Since the defendant committed a breach of the plaintiff’s intangible assets by way of distorting his patronymic and last name in a negative way, the latter shall have the right to compensation in accordance with Article 152 of the Civil Code. [The contested extracts] undermine the honour and dignity of the plaintiff as a person, pedagogue and musician because they contain negative information about the plaintiff presented in an affirmative form. Pursuant to Article 152 § 1 of the Civil Code, the burden to prove the truth of the allegations is on the defendant, who did not submit any evidence to the court showing that the impugned statements were true.” The Town Court awarded the plaintiff 5,000 Russian roubles (RUB) in damages and directed the applicant to publish a retraction on his website. 9. On 23 October 2008 the Supreme Court of the Komi Republic dismissed an appeal by the applicant. It endorsed the findings of the lower court in a summary judgment. It held that Article 10 of the Convention had not been breached because “the defendant published statements on the Internet which undermined the honour and dignity of the plaintiff as a person, pedagogue and musician and which contained negative information about him”.