Title

Einarsson v. Iceland

Date

07/11/2017

Country

ICELAND (Europe)

Judicial Body

European Court of Human Rights

Case number

24703/15

Main themes

Defamation
Insult
Respect for private life

Type of expression

Dark humor
Magazine
Sarcasm
Sexual content
Social media

Decision direction

Contracts expression

Outcome

Violation of Article 8

Link to case

Link to analysis

Summary

The applicant was Egill Einarsson, a well-known controversial media personality in Iceland who published articles, blogs and books and appeared in films, on television and other media, under pseudonyms for many years.
He had been accused of rape and sexual assault by two women but their cases had been dismissed due to lack of evidence likely to lead to a conviction.
Following an interview published in a magazine an altered version of his picture on the covered was published on his Instagram account with the caption ‘fuck you rapist bastard’, there was also an inverted cross drawn on his forehead and ‘loser’ written across his face. This post was then reproduced in an online newspaper article accompanying an interview with the man who had altered his image.
(Para 16 "The documents of the case reveal that there were instances when his criticism had been directed towards named individuals, often women, and in some cases his words could be construed to mean that he was in fact recommending that they should be subjected to sexual violence. The [applicant] has often justified such conduct by stating that the material had been meant in jest and that those who criticised it lacked a sense of humour.")
The Court found that the domestic courts had failed to strike a fair balance between the applicant’s right to respect for a private life and the right to freedom of expression of the person who had altered his image and found a violation of Article 8.