02 Apr Offensive comments on the online forum did not lead to a violation of Article 8 of the Convention

The European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been no violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of Høiness v. Norway (application no. 43624/14, 19/03/2019).

The case concerned the domestic courts’ refusal to impose civil liability on an Internet forum host after vulgar comments about Ms Høiness had been posted on the forum. Ms Høiness, who is a well-known lawyer, began civil proceedings before the Oslo City Court in May 2011 against the Hegnar Media AS company and Mr H., an editor working for the Internet portal Hegnar Online, for defamation. She stated that her honour had been infringed because of sexual harassment in three comments made anonymously in Hegnar Online’s forum, which was incorporated into Hegnar Media AS.

Relying on Article 8 (right to respect for private life), Ms Høiness complained that the Norwegian authorities had violated her rights under the Convention by not sufficiently protecting her right to protection of her reputation and by requiring her to pay litigation costs to the extent seen in her case.

The Court found in particular that the national courts had acted within their discretion (“margin of appreciation”) when seeking to establish a balance between Ms Høiness’s rights under Article 8 and the opposing right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the news portal and host of the debate forums.

The Court stated that the comments about Ms Høiness did not amount to hate speech or incitement to violence. As to the context in which the comments were made, the Court observed that the debate forums had not been particularly integrated in the presentation of news and thus had not appeared to be a continuation of editorial articles. Moreover, the domestic courts’ rulings on litigation costs being awarded to the defendants had not as such violated Article 8. Thus, there has been no violation of Article 8 of the Convention.

References from the official webiste of the European Court of Human Rights