Rustavi 2 case.

On 3 March 2017, the European Court of Human Rights ruled to temporarily suspend the enforcement of the Supreme Court’s Grand Chamber March 2 decision, which granted the ownership rights of Rustavi 2 TV, Georgia’s most-popular television channel, to its former co-owner.

“In the interests of the parties and the proper conduct of the proceedings before it, [the Court decided] to indicate to the Government of Georgia, under Rule 39, that the enforcement of the Supreme Court’s decision of 2 March 2017 should be suspended and that the authorities should abstain from interfering with the applicant company’s editorial policy in any manner,” the ECHR letter said.

The Court decided to give priority to the Rustavi 2 application under rule 41, which determines the order in which cases will be dealt by the ECHR. It however, did not specify when exactly would the Court convene for considering the Rustavi 2 application.

Under the Rules of Court, interim measures are binding and only applied in exceptional cases. The Court will only issue an interim measure against a Member State where, having reviewed all the relevant information, it considers that the applicant faces a real risk of serious, irreversible harm if the measure is not applied.

The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights rules on individual or state applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.