In a case against Moldova, the European Court has decided that a blanket immunity in defamation proceedings in order to guarantee the free speech rights of a president is to be considered as breaching the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court has been called to examine many cases concerning limitation of the right of access to a court in defamation cases by operation of parliamentary immunity (see e.g. Iris 2003-3/2, Iris 2003-7/2 and Iris 2013-10/1), but this was the first occasion on which the Court had to address the immunity from a civil libel suit from which a president or a head of State benefits
