issued by the Registrar of the Court
ECHR 150 (2024)
13.06.2024
Judgments and decisions of 13 June 2024
The European Court of Human Rights has today notified in writing 19 judgments1 and 14 decisions2:
four Chamber judgments are summarised below;
a separate press release has been issued for a Chamber judgment in the case of Daniel Karsai
v. Hungary (application no. 32312/23);
14 Committee judgments, concerning issues which have already been examined by the Court, and
the 14 decisions, can be consulted on Hudoc and do not appear in this press release.
The judgment in French below is indicated with an asterisk (*).
51207/19, and 58694/19)
The case concerns the authorities’ decisions to completely block access to four online media outlets
since 2017-18. The online media outlets are azadliq.org, anaxeber.az, az24saat.org and xural.com.
More specifically, the applicants are RFE/RL Inc. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) which, apart from
radio broadcasting, operates the website azadliq.org; Azer Mammad oglu Talibov, an Azerbaijani
national who is the founder and editor of the online news portal anaxeber.az; 24Saat.org, a mass
media company which operates the online news portal az24saat.org, and its founder Vugar
Alakbarov; and Khural, a newspaper published in Baku which operates the website, xural.com, and
its founder and editor-in-chief, Avaz Zeynalov.
The courts decided to block access to the websites on the grounds that certain articles published on
them had featured allegedly unlawful content under Azerbaijan’s media laws. In particular
azadliq.org was found to have published “information promoting violence and religious extremism
and calling for, among other things, mass riots”, while the other four websites were found to have
published “false, misleading and libellous information”.
Relying on Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the
applicants allege that the decisions to block access to their entire websites, instead of to specific
articles, were extreme. They argue in particular that the blocking orders were because they were
critical of the Government and exposed abuse of power and corruption. They also rely on Article 6
(right to a fair trial), Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) and Article 18 (limitation on use of
restrictions on rights) of the European Convention.
Violation of Article 10
Just satisfaction: For the details of the amounts awarded to the applicants for non-pecuniary
damage, as well as for costs and expenses, please see the operative part the judgment.
1
Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, Chamber judgments are not final. During the three-month period following a Chamber
judgment’s delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a
panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and
deliver a final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. Under Article 28 of the
Convention, judgments delivered by a Committee are final.
Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution.
2
Inadmissibility and strike-out decisions are final.