MOSCOW, March 14 – RAPSI, Ingrid Burke. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held Thursday that France violated Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights – which protects the Freedom of Expression – by convicting a man who had held up a satirical placard during a visit by then-president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008.

Disgruntled over a failed campaign to help a family of Turkish immigrants stay in France, Socialist activist Hervé Eon waved a placard reading “Casse toi pov’con” (“Get lost, you sad prick”), during an August 2008 visit by Sarkozy to Laval. The former president had famously said the same phrase to a farmer who refused to shake his hand earlier in the year.

In a press release, the Court described the infamy of Sarkozy’s utterance: “The phrase had given rise to extensive comment and media coverage and had been widely circulated on the Internet and used as a slogan at demonstrations.”

Eon was then tried and convicted of “insulting the President of France.” Finding that he had clearly intended to insult Sarkozy, the court fined him €30 and handed down a suspended sentence. The verdict was upheld on appeal, and declared inadmissible for cassation.

Eon then turned to the ECHR, charging that France had violated his fundamental freedom of expression.

In considering the case, the ECHR acknowledged that taken literally the phrase could be viewed as offensive to Sarkozy, but chose to look at the incident in a wider context, aiming to strike a balance between Eon’s personal rights and overarching public policy concerns.

The 1881 press freedom law that Eon had been convicted of violating aimed to “protect the reputation of ... others.”

The ECHR noted that public figures by definition leave themselves open to more intrusive scrutiny than regular citizens.

The court categorized Eon’s conduct as a form of satire, noting, “Since satire was a form of expression and comment that naturally aimed to provoke and agitate, any interference with the right to such expression had to be examined with particular care. Criminal penalties for conduct such as that displayed by Mr Eon were likely to have a chilling effect on satirical contributions to discussion of matters of public interest, and such discussion was fundamental to a democratic society.” [Sic.]

Finding that the French judgment had been disproportionate and unnecessary in a modern democratic society, the ECHR held that France violated Eon’s fundamental freedom of expression.