Hello everyone,

We’re writing to share a recent blog post https://wikimediafoundation.org/2018/12/12/the-european-court-of-human-rights-affirmed-that-hyperlinking-is-protected-free-expression-heres-why-were-applauding/ with you about the Magyar Jeti Zrt v. Hungary http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-187930 case which was just decided in the European Court of Human Rights. For those who are unfamiliar with the case, it began when a Hungarian newspaper posted a hyperlink to an interview on Youtube which was later judged to be defamatory to a particular political party. The party successfully sued the newspaper for hyperlinking to the interview, although the newspaper had neither conducted the interview nor ratified its contents when it posted the link. After the Supreme Court in Hungary confirmed that decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) agreed to hear the case to determine if Hungary had violated freedom of expression as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf.

Last week, the ECHR released its decision, finding that Hungary had indeed violated Article 10 of the Convention. This is a significant win for free expression https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/11/22/freedom-expression-link/ in Europe, and a recognition of the importance of hyperlinking as expression. Hyperlinks may not get a lot of attention, but they are essential to collaboration, communication, and information sharing on the web, and the court rightfully recognized this. We are excited to share this decision and hope that it can serve as an example for future discussions about free expression on the internet.

Best, Allison Davenport & Jim Buatti