Is it defamation to publish a critical post on Facebook about the activities of police officers in the performance of their duties: ECHR's position

The ECHR has not found a violation of Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the case of TOTH AND CRIȘAN v. ROMANIA (no. 45430/19).

The case concerned the events of 2016, when two police officers fined a woman and her mother for improper waste disposal. One of them published a post on Facebook with a photo of the police officers and the name of one of them, criticising their actions. The applicants went to court because of the content of the post, the information disseminated without their consent and the public outcry caused by this publication, but the claim was dismissed.

The ECHR ruled that the published post concerned an issue of significant public interest, namely the use of force by state representatives, especially when it comes to allegations of police brutality or misconduct. The ECHR agreed with the domestic courts that the applicants could not enjoy the same protection of their right to respect for private life as ordinary individuals, as they, acting within the scope of their official authority, were subject to a wider scope of permissible criticism.

In addition, the ECHR agreed with the position of the national courts that the photograph was not taken under circumstances that would show the applicants in an unfavourable light and that it did not represent them in a way that could undermine their public authority. The ECHR considered that the photo was taken only to support the content of the author's comments, and the mere publication of the applicant's name next to his photo without any negative connotations associated with the name or distortion of the photo could not be considered a particularly significant interference with the right to respect for private life. Moreover, the post did not mention any details of the applicants' private lives. The ECHR noted that the author of the post could not be held liable for the potential consequences of third parties' comments, some of which were obscene or defamatory, as each person is responsible only for his or her own statements, and there were no conditions for third-party liability in this case.

For a more detailed description of this judgment, please refer to the following reviews of the ECHR case law, while the previous review is available here: https://court.gov.ua/storage/portal/supreme/ogliady/Oglyad_ESPL_12_2024.pdf

The official text of the judgment in the case TOTH AND CRIȘAN v. ROMANIA is available on the website of the European Court of Human Rights: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/ukr?i=001-241975.