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 proportional
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 Whoever through the press, radio, television, computer system or network, at a public meeting or in another way publicly incites or makes available to the public leaflets, pictures or other materials that call for violence or hatred directed towards a group of people or a member of the group because of their race, religious, national or ethnic affiliation, language, origin, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or any other characteristics, will be liable according to the provisions of the Croatian Criminal Code.
example According to the Croatian Labour Law, during the process of selecting a candidate for a position (interview, testing, survey, etc.) and concluding an employment contract, as well as during the duration of the employment relationship, the employer may not ask the employee for information that is not directly related to the employment relationship.
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 Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the European Convention on Human Rights.
example Freedoms and rights can only be limited by law in order to protect the freedom and rights of other people as well as the legal order, public morals and health. Any limitation of freedom or right must be proportionate to the nature of the need for the limitation in each individual case.
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 impartiality of courts, it might be reasonable that a judge is not allowed to be a member of a political party. However, the imposition of such a restriction on a policeman would not be reasonable.
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 must be proportional to the legitimate aim. If your statements have violated the rights of other persons, the sanction must be proportional 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 disproportional. 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 disproportional.