SIDE BY SIDE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA - 32678/18 (Positive obligations - Freedom of expression - Authorities' years-long failure to secure safe and uninterrupted conduct of annual international LGBT film festival organised by the applicant company - Remainder inadmissible : Third Section) [2024] ECHR 903 (17 December 2024)

Parties

Procedural Posture

Application to the European Court of Human Rights / Judgment After Full Hearing

Legal Issues

1. 1 Whether the State failed to comply with its positive obligations under Article 10 to protect freedom of expression by not securing the safe and uninterrupted conduct of the LGBT film festival.
2. 2 Whether the authorities' actions or inactions in response to repeated bomb threats and disruptions constituted a violation of Article 10.
3. 3 Whether the suspension of the festival in 2020 under COVID-19 measures was justified and proportionate.

Ratio Decidendi

The State failed to discharge its positive obligations under Article 10 by not taking comprehensive and effective action to prevent repeated disruptions of the LGBT film festival, including bomb threats and false alarms, resulting in a violation of the applicant company's freedom of expression.

Court Disposition

Violation of Article 10 found; complaint under Article 10 by applicant company admissible; complaints by second and third applicants inadmissible; no need to examine Article 14 separately; just satisfaction awarded.

Orders

• The respondent State is to pay the applicant company EUR 7,500 in respect of non-pecuniary damage, plus any tax that may be chargeable, within three months from the date the judgment becomes final, to be converted into the currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable at the date of settlement.
• From the expiry of three months until settlement, simple interest shall be payable on the above amount at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.