The right to free expression and judicial independence
The European Court of Human Rights held that a judge of the Moscow City Court had been wrongly dismissed from office by the High Judiciary Qualification Panel when she publicly criticized the impartiality of that court and its members. Kudeshkina v. Russia 29492/05 [2009] ECHR 342
Article 10 of the Convention provides:
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of
expression. This right shall include freedom to
hold opinions and to receive and impart
information and ideas without interference by
public authority and regardless of frontiers.
This Article shall not prevent States from
requiring the licensing of broadcasting,
television or cinema enterprises.; 2. The
exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with
it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to
such formalities, conditions, restrictions or
penalties as are prescribed by law and are
necessary in a democratic society, in the
interests of national security, territorial
integrity or public safety, for the prevention of
disorder or crime, for the protection of health
or morals, for the protection of the reputation
or rights of others, for preventing the
disclosure of information received in confidence,
or for maintaining the authority and impartiality
of the judiciary.
The Court held that civil servants, such as the
applicant, enjoyed the right to freedom of
expression. An act motivated by a personal
grievance or a personal antagonism or the
expectation of personal advantage, including
pecuniary gain, would not justify a particularly
strong level of protection. Political speech, on
the contrary, enjoys special protection under
Article 10. Even if an issue under debate has
political implications, this is not by itself
sufficient to prevent a judge from making any
statement on the matter. In this case the
interviews were published in the context of the
applicant’s election campaign.
In addition, the President of the Supreme Court
had improperly disregarded the applicant’s proper
request to have the disciplinary proceedings
heard before a court other than the one she was
criticizing.
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