Published on 3 May 2021

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 16981/20 Andrijana ĆELAP against Croatia lodged on 6 April 2020 communicated on 15 April 2021

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns civil proceedings that the applicant, the head of a regional State administration office, instituted against the Croatian Radio ‑ Television seeking to be awarded damages for harm caused to her honour and reputation by the publication of allegedly false and inaccurate information about her work. The domestic courts eventually dismissed her civil action only because she had not requested the correction in her individual capacity. Instead, the correction had been requested in a letter of the State administration office at issue co-signed by the applicant in her capacity of head of that office.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Was the decision of the domestic courts to dismiss the applicant ’ s civil action for compensation on the ground that she requested a correction of the information published about her work in her capacity of head of a State administration office rather than in her individual capacity in breach of her right of access to court, guaranteed by Article 6 § 1 of the Convention (see Kostadin Mihaylov v. Bulgaria , no. 17868/07, 27 March 2008; Spasovski v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia , no. 45150/05, 10 June 2010; and Centre for the Development of Analytical Psychology v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia , nos. 29545/10 and 32961/10, 15 June 2017)?