Court rules in favor of Varjun

TALLINN - The Estonian Supreme Court’s Civil Chamber made a ruling on June 26, deciding not to repeal the rulings made by the courts of the first and second instances to order a media enterprise to pay 5,000 euros in compensation for damages caused by publishing private information on a creative person and her child, reports Aripaev Online. The legal dispute involves the tabloid magazine Kroonika and singer Birgit Varjun.

The media enterprise had published information on the singer’s private life, regardless of her opposition to such a move. The Supreme Court found that if a person is involved in creating intellectual property or performing it, there is generally justified heightened interest in their creative process, but not in their private lives.

“This is not changed by the fact that at one time, the person has expressed interest in communicating with the press and share private information about himself or herself. The fact that a person has shared information about their person to the public does not mean that the press could consequently start collecting additional private information about this person and publish this information, regardless of clearly expressed opposition from this person,” found the Supreme Court in its ruling.