Communicated on 23 January 2018

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 31662/17 Oksana Vladimirovna BORISOVA against Russia lodged on 19 April 2017

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The applicant was found liable in defamation in connection with her post in a public group on the Russian social network vk.com in which she had quoted a private message from her friend. The message contained harsh words about intellectual and professional abilities of a named police operative from the Extremism Combat Unit of the Stavropol region (final decision: the Russian Supreme Court, 13 February 2017).

QUESTIONS tO THE PARTIES

Was there a violation of Article 10 of the Convention as a result of a finding of the applicant ’ s liability in defamation? In particular, did the courts distinguish between the applicant ’ s own speech and the statements emanating from others? Did they distinguish between value judgments and statements of fact? Did they identify the elements of the post which they considered to be problematic? Did they take into account the context in which the post had been made? Lastly, did they consider whether the amount of award was reasonable and proportionate in the circumstances of the case?