Communicated on 4 December 2018

FIFTH SECTION

Application no. 43946/14 Avaz Tapdig oglu ZEYNALOV and KHURAL NEWSPAPER against Azerbaijan lodged on 26 May 2014

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The applicants are a newspaper and its editor. The application concerns civil proceedings instituted against the newspaper in connection with three articles published in the newspaper in 2011 concerning a large local brewery and its managing director. The articles discussed a number of various alleged unlawful activities and bad business and managing practices of the company and its director. The plaintiff, the managing director, claimed that the information published in the articles was false, slanderous and damaging to his professional reputation. The domestic courts upheld the plaintiff ’ s claims and ordered the newspaper to publish a refutation and pay AZN 7,000 in damages, to be given to an orphanage as requested by the plaintiff.

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 prescribed by law and necessary in terms of Article 10 § 2 in pursuit of a legitimate aim? Was the characterisation of the utterances published in the newspaper as statements of fact, rather than value judgments, justified? Was the amount 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 articles, as well as translations into English or French of the specific extracts of the impugned articles which were found to be defamatory by the domestic courts.

APPENDIX

No.

Firstname LASTNAME

Birth year

Nationality

Place of residence

Representative

Avaz Tapdig oglu ZEYNALOV

1970Azerbaijani

Baku

E.A. Sadiqov

KHURAL

Newspaper operating in Azerbaijan

Baku

E.A. Sadiqov