Judgment concerning Lithuania
In the case of Valaitis v. Lithuania the Court held that there had been no violation of the right to an effective remedy.
The case concerned an allegation that the Lithuanian authorities had not taken effective measures to protect homosexuals from hate speech following comments published in response to an Internet article referring to a gay finalist in the televised singing competition The Voice.
The Court found that the reopening of the investigation in the case, following the Beizaras and Levickas v. Lithuania judgment, had demonstrated a clear and positive shift in the State authorities’ attitude towards the prosecution of hate crimes, who had drawn the necessary conclusions from that judgment. The Court did not find that the reopened pre-trial investigation in the applicant’s case had been discontinued or suspended owing to a prejudicial attitude by the authorities.