Judgment concerning Croatia
In the case of Mesić v. Croatia (no. 2) the Court held that there had been no violation of the right to respect for private life.
The case concerned an article published in February 2015 by an Internet news portal Dnevno.hr suggesting that the applicant, a former President of Croatia, had, during his term of office, been offered or taken bribes in relation to the procurement of armoured vehicles for the Croatian army from a Finnish company.
The Court found that the article had not targeted the applicant’s private life but had referred to his conduct in the exercise of his official duties and, in reporting what had been stated in official documents, had not unambiguously stated that he had participated in criminal activities. It also found that the Croatian courts had struck a fair balance between the applicant’s right to respect for his private life and the right of the news portal to freedom of expression.