The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Slovenia to pay more than €15,000 in costs and damages to leftist magazine Mladina.
The court ruled yesterday that Slovenia’s justice system had wrongfully infringed on the magazine’s right to freedom of expression when it fined the publication for comparing right-wing Slovenian politician and MEP Branko Grims to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
Grims was an MP for the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) at the time. In 2024, he became an MEP for SDS.
The verdict marks the end of a legal battle that dates back almost 15 years.
On March 4, 2011, Mladina – a left-leaning weekly political magazine – had printed a picture of Grims, his wife and their three children, next to a similar picture of Joseph Goebbels and his family.
The montage was meant as a satirical commentary on a debate in Slovenia at the time that had begun when an SDS press officer – a former Mladina employee – had posted a similar collage on his private Facebook page.
The accompanying text read: “Our former colleague […] compared Dr G to Dr Goebbels on his Facebook page. The editorial board [of Mladina] joins the protest.
“It may perhaps appear that Dr G is drawing inspiration from his role model but he is still far from being like him; currently, he is not even half as good. Much more practice in manipulation is still needed. Sieg!”
Grims, his wife and children subsequently sued the magazine, claiming the juxtaposition with Goebbels who “symbolised totalitarianism, violence, ethnic cleansing and … the murder of his own children” had damaged his honour, good name and dignity.
In July 2013, the Ljubljana District Court dismissed Grims’ suit, saying the article in Mladina “clearly indicated that the comparison was solely between the political methods” of Grims and Goebbels.
Through a series of appeals both by Grims and Mladina the case went all the way to the Constitutional Court of Slovenia.
In December 2016, it determined that the magazine had been wrong in printing the pictures and that the satirical nature of the publication could not tip the balance in favour of freedom of expression.
In 2017, Mladina was ordered to pay €3,000 in damages to Grims as well as €14,000 in total to his three children.
In June 2017, Mladina lodged a complaint with the ECHR.
Now – more than eight years later – the court has ruled in favour of the magazine.
The Slovenian courts, the ECHR writes, had “failed to establish the convincingly any pressing social need for placing the protection of [Grims’] reputation above [Mladina’s] right to freedom of expression and the general interest in promoting freedom of expression”.
The verdict reads: “Even assuming [Grims’] reputation suffered as a result of the articles in question, it has not been demonstrated that the consequences suffered by him were sufficiently serious to override the public’s interest in receiving the information contained in them.”
The ECHR consequently ordered Slovenia to pay €15,253.85 to Mladina in compensation for the damages paid to Grims as well as the legal costs incurred.
Brussels Signal contacted Grims for comment but had not heard back at the time of writing.
According to news site Slovenia Times yesterday, Grims said the court delivered a political rather than legal decision, adding: “Those at the ECHR who adopted it did so to the shame of their institution.”
He added that his children had been bullied by their peers because of the montage.
“The ECHR judgment allows slime to be thrown at those who are not Marxists and gives a green light to attack their children and families,” Grims concluded.
