The Right of Access to ‘Reliable’ Information Under Article 10 echr: From Meagre Beginnings to New Frontiers

Abstract

Abstract Recognition of the right of access to information under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights has been marked by fits and starts. This article charts three phases in the jurisprudence – from outright denial (Phase One), through hesitant recognition (Phase Two), to recognition of a limited right in specified circumstances (Phase Three). The Court’s recent judgment in Association Burestop 55 and Others v France may mark a new frontier (or ‘Fourth Phase’), as the Court recognised for the first time that the right necessarily comprises a qualitative aspect – that is, it requires that the information disclosed is sincere, accurate, sufficient, and reliable. This could have important ramifications for the quality of the information environment in the current ‘post-truth’ era. However, several conceptual challenges, practical limitations, and lingering uncertainties will need to be addressed for the promise of the judgment to be fully realised.