CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGE DEDOV

It is very difficult to examine a defamation case in which a public figure was criticised but other members of the family alleged that this criticism affected them as well. I believe that the national courts did not even have the authority to examine such a case, as the claim was inadmissible ratione personae .

In the similar case of Putistin v. Ukraine (no. 16882/03 , § 38, 21 November 2013) the Court accepted that “the applicant [member of the family] was affected by the article, but only in an indirect manner, in the sense that a reader who knew that the applicant ’ s father ’ s name was on the 1942 poster might draw adverse conclusions about his father. The level of impact was thus quite remote”. This is a completely different approach compared with the arguments set out in the present judgment. It is more concrete and closer to the factual circumstances. However, in neither case do I see any substantial analysis being made by this Court, which the domestic courts could follow, as to how to strike an appropriate balance between the right to private life and the right to freedom of expression.

The enjoyment of private life by other members of the family was affected, remotely or not. However, the claimants, who were not mentioned in the article, should then have borne a heavier burden of proof and they should have produced material evidence of a negative effect or made a public announcement that they should not be associated with the impugned action or with a particular person, for specific reasons.

The national courts limited their analysis to the claimants ’ private life without striking any balance with the applicant ’ s right to freedom of expression, and in particular her right to raise issues of public interest. I believe that the moral criticism directed by the applicant as a journalist against the parliamentarian was addressed not only to that public figure but to the rest of society, as she raised the issue of social solidarity.