ECHR allows continued online access in right-to-be-forgotten case

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has upheld the decision of Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, allowing three media outlets to continue offering access to material relating to the murder convictions of the two individuals who started the proceedings. The two half-brothers, convicted in 1993, and released on probation in 2007 and 2008, had requested anonymity in coverage about them, under the so-called ‘right-to-be-forgotten’. The decision noted that the right of the press to freedom of expression and of the public to be informed were important to this case. The court considered aspects such as the fact that these were ‘not simply private individuals who were unknown to the public at the time they requested anonymity’, rather, the information in question reported on court proceedings and was part of the body of information necessary to contribute to ‘debate in a democratic society’.