24. By a final decision of 18 November 2003 the Belgorod Regional Court rejected the applicant's action to annul the transfer of his property to a number of third persons.
25. By a judgment of 4 February 2003 the Oktyabrskiy District Court rejected his application to annul a lease agreement between the applicant and a certain commercial entity.
II. Relevant domestic law and practice
26. Article 33 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides that citizens of the Russian Federation have the right to apply in person, as well as to submit individual and collective applications, to state bodies and local government institutions.
27. Article 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides that a citizen may apply to a court to have information damaging his or her honour, dignity or professional reputation retracted unless the person who disseminated such information proves its accuracy. In addition to retraction, the citizen may also claim compensation for losses and non-pecuniary damage sustained as a result of the dissemination of such information.
28. Section 2 of Resolution No. 11 of the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 18 August 1992 (as amended on 25 April 1995) "On certain issues arising during the examination by courts of action for the protection of the honour and dignity of citizens, and also the professional reputation of citizens and legal entities" defines damaging information as information which is inaccurate and contains assertions that a citizen has broken the law or transgressed moral principles as well as impairing the honour or dignity of a citizen or the professional reputation of a citizen or a legal entity. The dissemination of such information is understood as the publication or broadcasting of such statements or their inclusion in professional references, public speeches, applications to State officials or communication in other forms, including oral, to at least one another person. The communication of such information to the person whom it concerns cannot be considered as its dissemination.
29. Section 7 of the Resolution lays the burden of proof on the defendant to show that the information disseminated was accurate; the plaintiff must prove only that the defendant disseminated the information.
THE LAW
I. Alleged violation of Article 10 of the Convention
30. The applicant complained, relying on Articles 6 and 10 of the Convention, about the defamation proceedings brought by judge B., alleging that the proceedings had been unfair, that his letter to the relevant authorities could not be regarded as disseminating defamatory information, and that the award in the case had been disproportionate and arbitrary. The Court considers that the complaint falls to be examined under Article 10 of the Convention, which reads, in so far as relevant, as follows:
"1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. ...
2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary."
31. The Government contested the applicant's argument and submitted that when examining the defamation case b
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