Privacy and defamation at the ECHR - two new cases

The European Court of Human Rights has issued two new decisions on privacy and defamation: Karako v. Hungary and Egeland and Hanseid v. Norway. Karako is an Article 8 defamation case, in which the Court holds no violation for strident comments made regarding a politician during election times. The Court's reasoning is interesting as it attempts to answer some questions on the extent to which Article 8 protects reputation:

"23. For the Court, personal integrity rights falling within the ambit of Article 8 are unrelated to the external evaluation of the individual, whereas in matters of reputation, that evaluation is decisive: one may lose the esteem of society – perhaps rightly so – but not one's integrity, which remains inalienable. In the Court's case-law, reputation has only been deemed to be an independent right sporadically (see Petrina v. Romania, no. 78060/01, 14 October 2008, and Armonienė v. Lithuania, no. 36919/02, 25 November 2008) and mostly when the factual allegations were of such a seriously offensive nature that their publication had an inevitable direct effect on the applicant's private life. However, in the instant case, the applicant has not shown that the publication in question, allegedly affecting his reputation, constituted such a serious interference with his private life as to undermine his personal integrity. The Court therefore concludes that it was the applicant's reputation alone which was at stake in the context of an expression made to his alleged detriment."

This is where the reasoning ends - unfortunately. While to me it would follow that the case should be inadmissible since Article 8 is not affected (the alleged interference did not actually impinge on the private sphere), the Court goes on to apply article 10 reasoning and finds no violation of Article 8. The Court does seem to be taking time here to reflect and the decision puts an interesting gloss on Petrina and Pfeiffer. There's a partly concurring opinion by judge Jociene who favours a much bolder appraoch in favour of reputation as an article 8 right. It's a Second Section decision.

The first Section, meanwhile, continues on the pro-privacy path in Egeland and Hanseid v. Norway, a case concerning the taking of photographs of accused outside the court. Rozakis states in his concurring opinion (which otherwise is concerned with the margin of appreciation): "in matters of clashes between freedom of expression (and more specifically the taking of photographs in a public place) and the right to private life, the Court has already developed jurisprudence to the effect that the balance should be tipped in favour of private life".