NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

Article 9 that the authorities’ refusal to grant a broadcasting licence had substantially restricted their possibility to communicate their religious ideas to others, the Court ruled that, having regard to its findings under Article 10, it is not necessary to examine whether there has been a violation of the freedom of religion. Nonetheless, the Court concluded that there has been a violation of Article 13 of the Convention in conjunction with Article 10. Given this, we can move directly to the next part of this section, which will consider the grouping of Articles 10 and 13 of the Convention. 2.8.4 Article 13 in conjunction with Article 10 of the Convention Combining Articles 10 and 13 of the Convention in the cases concerning Article 34 NGOs is also not widespread in the practice of the Court. One of the few examples is the case of MacKay and BBC Scotland v. the United Kingdom . 1044 The application was filed by a British national, Mr A. Mackay, and the British Broadcasting Corporation in Scotland (BBC Scotland), which the Court collectively called ‘the applicants’. The applicants sought to publish information on the trial of two men accused of importing and supplying controlled drugs. On 28 September 2004, the judge made an interim order preventing the publication of any report on the proceedings in question. Following an appearance by BBC Scotland before that judge on the following day, he varied the order to the effect that it prohibited publication of any report of the proceedings until the completion of any appeal and any further trial. The applicants appealed against this order but to no avail. They complained before the Court, under Article 13, inter alia , that there was no effective remedy to challenge the judge’s order. The Court noted that the application to recall the court order had only been examined by the courts three months after the decision regarding the proceedings on the importing and supplying of drugs. By that time, the interest in any reporting the applicants might have wished to undertake would have been seriously undermined. Accordingly, the applicants had not been able to effectively challenge the judicial order. In light of these circumstances, the Court held that there had been a violation of Article 13 in conjunction with Article 10. 1045 Refusal by the regional authority to provide copy of its decisions to an association wishing to study the impact of property transfers on agricultural and forest land have led to an infringement of the Convention in the case of Österreichische Vereinigung zur Erhaltung, Stärkung und Schaffung v. Austria . 1046 The applicant was a registered association the aims of which were to research the influence of the reassignment of land ownership on society and to give opinions on relevant draft legislation. In 2005, in connection with this work, the association asked the regional authority, whose approval was required for certain agricultural and forest land transactions, to provide it with copies of all decisions it had issued since the beginning of the year. 1044 MacKay and BBC Scotland v. the United Kingdom , no. 10734/05, 7 December 2010. 1045 Consultation on Draft Court Rules in Relation to Reporting Restrictions . July 2013, p. 5. (online). URL: accessed 20 July 2015. 1046 Österreichische Vereinigung zur Erhaltung, Stärkung und Schaffung v. Austria , no. 39534/07, 28 November 2013.

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