Any restrictions on freedom of expression must be lawful and must be an exception made on individual cases.
Therefore, the police, the courts, state institutions and even private companies and organisations must demonstrate that any restrictive measure:
- is established by law
- pursues a legitimate aim
- is necessary to ensure that legitimate aim
- and is proportionate
Learn more about each of these criteria:
Any restrictive measure must be based on law. This means that the police or even your employer cannot restrict your freedom of expression unless this possibility is provided by law.
example Lithuanian criminal law requires that a person who publicly incites hatred against a certain ethnic group should be punished.
example An employer is allowed to adopt internal rules at the workplace, which prohibit a person from disclosing information received at work. However, the employer cannot impose arbitrary restrictions which are based only on internal orders and are not grounded in law.
Any restrictive measure must pursue an important objective, which the state needs to protect (legitimate aim). These aims are listed in legal documents, such as the Lithuanian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
example Restrictions may be imposed to prevent the disclosure of confidential information, to protect other people’s rights and interests or to prevent disorder or crime etc.
Any restrictive measure must only be taken if it is really necessary to reach the legitimate aim. State institutions will have the duty to prove that necessity.
example To ensure the neutrality of the military, it might be reasonable that a soldier is not allowed to express support to or campaign for a political party. However, such restriction should not prevent soldiers from exchanging views and opinions on the organisation of the military or other issues pertaining to military life.
Firstly, any restrictive measure must be proportional to the legitimate aim. This means that your right to express yourself must be balanced against those rights or interests which the state is trying to protect.
example The court would need to give arguments why the protection of the privacy of a public figure in a specific case is more important than the public’s interest in receiving the information that has been made public.
Secondly, the restriction as well as the applied sanction cannot be excessive, and the authorities must demonstrate that more lenient measures would not have achieved the legitimate aim. If your statements have violated the rights of other persons, the sanction must be proportionate to that particular violation. This means that the penalty you receive must be reasonable and correspond to the gravity of your violation.
example If the court applied criminal sanctions to you for excessive criticism of a public official, this would most likely be disproportionate. If the court required you to pay a sum three times higher than was previously ever awarded in a defamation case, this would also be disproportionate.