The European Court of Human Rights recently found that the Government of Turkey, having ordered lawyer Ayhan Erdoðan to pay compensation for remarks that he made against a public figure during court proceedings, had breached Mr Erdoðan’s right to freedom of speech in violation of art 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Article 10 of the Convention guarantees the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to ‘impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers’ (art 10(1)), subject to such restrictions and penalties as are ‘prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society… for the protection of the reputation or rights of others’ (art 10(2)).
