
Strasbourg, Jul. 24 (DPnet).– Ben Bradshaw, Caroline Lucas, and Alyn Smith presented a complaint before the European Court of Human Rights against the United Kingdom for lack of proper response to alleged interference by Russia in the United Kingdom’s democratic processes, including the 2019 general election.
The applicants complained that, despite the existence of credible allegations that Russia had sought to interfere in the UK’s democratic elections, through, for example, the dissemination of disinformation and the running of influence campaigns, the Government had failed to fulfil its duty (“positive obligation”) to investigate those allegations and had not put in place an effective legal and institutional framework in order to protect against the risk of such interference.
However, the Court found that, while States should not remain passive when faced with evidence that their democratic processes were under threat, they must be given considerable latitude in their choice of how to counter such threats. In the Court’s view, while there were undoubtedly shortcomings in the UK’s initial response to the reports of Russian election interference, there had been two thorough and independent investigations, and the Government had since taken several legislative and operational measures to counter disinformation efforts and protect the democratic integrity of the UK. Any failings were therefore not sufficiently grave as to have impaired the very essence of the applicants’ right under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to benefit from elections held “under conditions which ensure the free expression of the opinion of the people.”
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