De dierenactivist als ‘social watchdog’: blaffen mag, bijten niet?

The animal activist as a ‘social watchdog’: you can bark, but you can’t bite? A study on the relationship between criminal prosecution of animal activists and the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the ECHR Animal welfare has increasingly become part of public debate. Animal activists provide information about abuses in the livestock industry, but often violate criminal law in doing so. By reflecting on legislation and in case law from the ECHR, an answer has been sought to the question of how criminal prosecution relates to the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 ECHR. It is concluded that animal activists investigating and publishing information about abuses enjoy the same protection as the press. Whether criminal prosecution constitutes a breach of this right is case-specific and primarily depends on whether the public interest in the publication outweighs the interest protected by the relevant criminal provision(s).