The applicants, Björk Eidsdottir and Erla Hlynsdottir, are two Icelandic nationals who were born in 1974 and 1978, and live in Reykjavík. Both of them are journalists, working respectively for a weekly magazine and for a newspaper. They were both found liable for defamation in 2009: Ms Eidsdottir for an article published in 2007 which concerned the working conditions in a strip club called “Goldfinger”, and Ms Hlynsdottir for a news report published in 2009 concerning an alleged assault at another strip club called “Strawberries”. Relying on Article 10 (freedom of expression), the two applicants complain about the outcome of the ensuing defamation proceedings against them.
(from the official press-release prepared by the Registry Office of the European Court of Human Rights)