Group work: Analysing Strasbourg cases on Freedom of Expression

Description

   

Aim: This group work will give the students knowledge about the European Court of Human Rights and court cases on freedom of expression.  

  

The students will be divided into groups. Preferably there should be no more than four to a group. Students may also choose to work in pairs or the task may be given as a follow-up assignment. (30 minutes to 1 hour)

  • The session leader will show the group how to find cases in the HUDOC base on the European Court of Human Rights website. It is possible to search cases according to a key word or an Article in the European Convention. A good tip is to work with the press releases of the judgements, as they give a good overview of the case.  In the attached document you will find four interesting cases concerning freedom of expression, which include interesting learning points.

  • Each group will be instructed to find and analyse a case from the European Court of Human Rights relating to freedom of expression.
    The following questions are then to be answered:
    - Who are the parties?
    - Which Article (s) in the European Convention of Human Rights is (are) claimed to have been violated?
    - What is the case about? What is the problem? Give a short summary
    - What is the Court´s decision and what are the main underlying arguments?

  • The groups will then present their cases to the others.

  • After the presentations, the session leader will encourage the students to discuss the ways in which this knowledge is relevant for them as future journalists.

Author:
Lillian Hjorth, Director, Human Rights Academy (Norway)

An online manual on intercultural understanding, ethics and human rights to be used by teachers and students in journalism education. Read more.

Email : post@journalism-edu.org

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