Communicated on 4 December 2018

FIFTH SECTION

Application no. 20755/08 AZADLIQ NEWSPAPER and Ganimat ZAYIDOV against Azerbaijan lodged on 26 March 2008

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns civil proceedings instituted against the applicants, a newspaper and its editor, in connection with an article titled “The Corruption Machine of the President ’ s Aid”, which alleged that T.A., a former aid to the former President, and his relatives owned numerous specifically listed properties obtained in a corrupt manner, including inter alia a football club, a restaurant, various commercial enterprises and plots of land. T.A. sued the newspaper and its editor, claiming that the information in the article was false and damaging to his reputation. The domestic courts ruled in the plaintiff ’ s favour, finding that the defendants had been unable to prove the veracity of their factual statements, and ordered the newspaper and its editor to pay compensation for non-pecuniary damage in the amounts of AZN 40,000 and AZN 25,000 respectively. In their appeals, the applicants argued inter alia that the domestic courts had failed to make a distinction between facts and value judgments and that the amounts awarded were exorbitant in view of their very modest incomes.

QUESTIONS tO THE PARTIES

1. Has there been an interference with the applicants ’ freedom of expression, within the meaning of Article 10 § 1 of the Convention? If so, was that interference justified in terms of Article 10 § 2? In particular, was the characterisation of the applicants ’ utterances as statements of fact, rather than value judgments, justified? Were the amounts of compensation for damages awarded in the present case in compliance with the requirement of proportionality?

2. The parties are requested to submit a detailed summary in English or French of the impugned article, as well as translations into English or French of the specific extracts of the impugned article which were found to be defamatory by the domestic courts.

No.

Firstname LAST NAME

Birth year

Nationality

Place of residence

Representative

AZADLIQ

-

Newspaper registered in Azerbaijan

Baku

R. Hajili

E. Sadiqov

Ganimat Salim oglu ZAYIDOV

1963Azerbaijani

Baku

R. Hajili

E. Sadiqov