Handbook on Techniques of Judicial Interaction in the Application of the EU Charter FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND COUNTERING HATE SPEECH IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ‘E-LEARNING NATIONAL ACTIVE CHARTER TRAINING (E-NACT)’ PROJECT FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS & CITIZENSHIP PROGRAMME Researcher responsible for the handbook: Dr. Federica Casarosa With the collaboration of Dr. Madalina Moraru 1 NATIONAL EXPERTS AND COLLABORATORS The e-NACT team would like to thank the following experts and collaborators who contributed to the selection of the national and European case law on which this handbook is built. Fabrizia Bemer Andrea Bindi Marta Carmo Bogdan Cristea Valeria De Risi Evelyne Esterzon Sigita Fomičiova Eric Joos Meeli Kaur Gehard Kuras Nefeli-Zoi Lappa Hans Peter Lehofer Elissavet Margariti Martina Maršić Krasimira Milachova Attila Mráz Ieva Navickaitė-Sakalauskienė Evangelia Psychogiopoulou Jan Stiavnicky 2 Contents Part I – Analysis of the legal area ........................................................................................................ 6 1. The basics: what is freedom of expression? ...................................................................................... 6 1.1. Concept and features ................................................................................................................. 6 1.2. Legal provisions at the European level ...................................................................................... 8 The European Union .......................................................................................................................... 8 The European Convention on Human Rights .................................................................................. 10 The national level............................................................................................................................. 11 1.3. Limitations ............................................................................................................................... 12 The European Union ........................................................................................................................ 12 The European Convention on Human Rights .................................................................................. 13 The national level............................................................................................................................. 14 2. Hate speech ...................................................................................................................................... 16 2.1. The EU legal framework .......................................................................................................... 16 2.2. ECtHR jurisprudence ............................................................................................................... 21 The distinction between hate speech and other concepts .................................................................... 23 Hate speech and hate crime ............................................................................................................. 23 Hate speech and discrimination ....................................................................................................... 23 Hate speech and defamation ............................................................................................................ 23 3. Main legal and judicial bodies ......................................................................................................... 24 4. The specificities of the use of the Charter of Fundamental rights at the European and national levels ........................................................................................................................................................ 26 4.1 Media freedom ............................................................................................................................... 26 4.2. Defamation and libel .................................................................................................................... 27 4.3. Conflicts between freedom of expression and data protection ..................................................... 31 4.4. Conflicts between freedom of expression and intellectual property ............................................. 34 Part II – Selected cases ...................................................................................................................... 39 Methodological remarks .......................................................................................................................... 39 Selected sets of cases ............................................................................................................................... 40 Casesheet no. 1 – CJEU, Mesopotamia Broadcast A/S METV (C-244/10) and Roj TV A/S (C- 245/10) v Bundesrepublik Deutschland............................................................................................... 42 Casesheet no. 2 – CJEU, Baltic Media Alliance Ltd v Lietuvos radijo ir televizijos komisija, Case C- 622/17, pending case .......................................................................................................................... 46 Casesheet no. 3 – CJEU, Glawischnig-Piesczek v Facebook, C-18/18, pending case ........................ 49 Casesheet no. 4 – Italy, First instance court Milan, decision 13716/15, 17 December 2015 ............. 53 Casesheet no. 5 – Belgium, Constitutional Court, no. 31/2018, March, 15th 2018 ........................... 55 Casesheet no. 6 – Spain, Constitutional Court, no. 177/2015, 22 July 2015 ...................................... 57 3 Casesheet no. 7 – Portugal, Supreme Court of Justice, 48/12.2YREVR.S1, 5 June 2012 .................. 60 Casesheet no. 8 – Greece, Council of State, Case 1901/2014 (Supreme Administrative Court) ........ 63 Casesheet no. 9 – Slovakia, Constitutional Court II. ÚS 152/08, 15 December 2009 ....................... 67 Casesheet no. 10 – Romania, High Court of Cassation and Justice, decision no. 359/2014 of 28 January 2014 ....................................................................................................................................... 70 Casesheet no. 11 – Italy, Tribunal of Rovereto, 19 November 2015 .................................................. 73 Casesheet no. 12 – Romania, High Court of Cassation and Justice, decision no. 3216/2014, 19 November 2014 .................................................................................................................................. 75 Casesheet no. 13 – CJEU, Tietosuojavaltuutettu v Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy and Satamedia Oy, Case C-73/07. ...................................................................................................................................... 79 Casesheet no. 14 – CJEU, Google Spain SL and Google Inc. v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) and Mario Costeja González, Case C‑131/12 ............................................................. 84 Part III - Hypotheticals ...................................................................................................................... 90 Hypothetical no. 1 – The conflict between freedom of expression and data protection .......................... 91 Hypothetical no. 2 - The liability of ISP in the case of illegal content and its effect on the freedom of expression principle ................................................................................................................................. 95 Hypothetical no. 3 – The limitation of freedom of expression on grounds of hate speech ..................... 98 4 Acknowledgements I wish to express my gratitude to the project partners and to the members of the e-NACT Working Group on Freedom of Expression for sharing their practice and experience concerning the application of the Charter, and for sending us their suggestions on how to improve the e-NACT handbook so as to make it useful to them. Terms of use This document may be freely used and distributed, provided that the document itself is not modified or shortened, that full authorship credit is given and that these terms of use are not removed but included with every copy. Address questions and comments to: federica.casarosa@eui.eu 5 Part I – Analysis of the legal area 1. The basics: what is freedom of expression? 1.1. The concept and features of freedom of expression The freedom of expression of each citizen and of the media plays a fundamental role in society. It is considered one of the pillars of a democratic society and an essential precondition for ensuring the protection of individuals’ other human rights.1 As a matter of fact, the freedom of every citizen to freely express his or her ideas nourishes a dialogue that in the end serves not only the individual but also society as a whole. In many European countries, freedom of expression is the cornerstone of the democratic order, meaning that it is not possible to talk about democracy in the absence of an effective flow of ideas and comparison among them.2 The tight connection between freedom of expression and democracy has been affirmed on several occasions by national courts. In Italy, the Constitutional Court has several times underlined that a democratic society is based on effective freedom of expression.3 In Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court has declared that freedom of expression and freedom of information are human rights enshrined