Putistin v Ukraine App No. 16882/03, 21 November 2013 - Article 8 reputation for dead?

Putistin v Ukraine App No. 16882/03, 21 November 2013 (from Jacob, White and Ovey): The applicant is the son of a former Dynamo Kyiv football player who took part in a game known as the “Death Match” in 1942. His father is deceased. The game was played between a team which included professional players from Dynamo Kyiv and a team of Germans. The German team was defeated. Allegedly as a result of their victory, the Dynamo Kyiv team suffered reprisals with a number of Ukrainian players sent to a local concentration camp, where four were executed. In 2001 a newspaper published an article entitled: “The Truth about the Death Match”. The article included a quotation from the producer of a film about the match, who stated that there were only four players who had been executed, and that other players had “collaborated with the Gestapo”. The applicant claimed that it suggested that his father had collaborated with the Gestapo.
The Court accepted that the reputation of a deceased member of a person’s family might, in certain circumstances, affect that person’s private life and identity, and come within the scope of Article 8. However on the facts, the applicant was not directly affected by the publication and the level of impact on the applicant had been remote. The article had been informative and not provocative or sensationalist. 'via Blog this'