9th RMLNLU – SCC ONLINE®

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA LAW

MOOT COURT COMPETITION,

2021

February 26 – February 28, 2021

MEMORIAL ON BEHALF OF THE APPLICANT

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 STATEMENT OF JURISDICTION

The applicant, along with the respondent, has instituted the proceedings before the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) through a Special Agreement under Article 40(1) of the Statute of the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) which states that: -

“1. Cases are brought before the Court, as the case may be, either by the notification of the
special agreement or by a written application addressed to the Registrar. In either case the
subject of the dispute and the parties shall be indicated.”

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 STATEMENT OF FACTS

1. Histanbul is the largest and the oldest democracy in the world. Histanbul is a strong
believer of independent media and freedom of expression is considered a non- negotiable
liberty in its legal framework.
2. Alsara is another developed nation having a Parliamentary Democracy. Alsarian People’s
Congress (APC) has been in power in Alsara for the last 30 years.
3. ‘Jumbo’ is a popular online social media and social networking service that allows
individuals to connect with friends and share news, opinions and images. It has become
so popular that more than 40 percent of the world population is said to be a part of it.
4. In order to increase its membership, ‘Jumbo’ has come up with a referral scheme,
wherein the account of its members is credited with 5 anaa for every referral made and 10
anaa if the person referred joins the platform. This referral scheme helped ‘Jumbo’ grow
its membership.
5. ‘Jumbo’ has recently seen a rise in membership in Alsara and the same is attributed by
many to the several programmes funded by ‘Jumbo’ for achieving ‘digital equality’ in
Alsara. One of its initiatives, ‘Connect’ provides internet access at low rates in far flung
areas of Alsara.
6. A law was passed on April 14, 2020 in Alsara that required all residents of Alsara to
enroll in a National Register (NR). It was proposed that over a period of time, the
National Register Identity Number (NRIN) would be linked to all social welfare schemes.
This law required residents of Alsara to prove that they or their ancestors have been
residents of Alsara since 1st January, 1961.
7. The conflict between the supporters and critics of NRIN intensified to such an extent that
the entire Alsara was embroiled in protests. A political party ‘Alsaran Independent
Coalition’(AIC) has been at the forefront of these protests.
8. Elections were due in Alsara and voting was to begin from February 14, 2021. The
growing support to AIC was imputed to the successful movement launched against the
National Register.

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9. In the midst of this strife and ongoing elections, Panth, the co-founder of ‘Jumbo’, visited
Alsara on February 10, 2020 to promote Jumbo’s digital initiatives, especially project
‘Connect’ and its referral scheme. On February 12, 2020, Rayan, a member of AIC
published a statement on his account on ‘Jumbo’, alleging that the Prime Minister of
Alsara was guilty of corruption and had misappropriated public funds to the tune of
10,000,000 anaa.
10. This statement was picked up by the newspapers and other media platforms across the
globe presumably causing severe damage to the electoral prospects of APC. The very
next day Panth and Rayan were arrested by the Alsarian government under Section 190
of Alsara Criminal Law Code, 1910 (ACLC) which made defamation a criminal offence.
11. The Consulate of Histanbul in Alsara was denied the permission to meet Ms. Panth on
February 13, 2020, who was held in judicial custody after the arrest.
12. A huge public outcry occurred against this arrest. However, the government of Alsara
constituted an investigation committee to inquire into the operation of ‘Jumbo’ in Alsara.
The Investigation Committee was also mandated to inquire whether ‘Jumbo’ complied
with the privacy laws of Alsara and whether the data collected by it through its various
initiatives was secure or not.
13. According to the report, ‘Jumbo’ had been involved in using the data of Alsarian citizens
to create psychographic profiles of its users. This profile, according to the report, was
used to target Alsarian citizens with negative opinions about APC. It was also found that
based on their search history, Alsarians were also shown information about ‘Protest
against NR’ events.
14. Histanbul was extremely upset with the arrest of Panth. The Ministry of External Affairs
of Histanbul released the statement on February 21, 2020 providing that there has been a
violation of freedom of expression by the arrest of Ms. Panth and any allegation of
wrongful conduct should be investigated in a neutral manner. The Government of Alsara
has violated international law and it is called upon to immediately hand over Ms. Panth to
Histanbul and she shall be tried for the offences accordingly.
15. Alsara’s response to the above statement was that it was well within its right to arrest and
try Ms. Panth for what has been committed by her. Istanbul is the one which has
interfered with the political independence of Alsara by trying to manipulate our

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 democratic election process through its agent ‘Jumbo’ for which it should issue a public
apology to Alsara.
16. Concerned with the aggravating situation, Histanbul and Alsara initiated several
diplomatic negotiations to settle their disputes. However, all such efforts failed and as a
result, the Parties agreed to submit the matters of dispute to the International Court of
Justice under the Special Agreement.

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 ARGUMENTS ADVANCED

CONTENTION: - THAT ALSARA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLATING THE

FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND EXPRESSION OF MS. PANTH.

It is submitted before the Hon’ble Court that Alsara is responsible for violating Ms. Panth’s
freedom of speech and expression by holding her liable for defamation under Section 190 1 of the
Code. On 10th February, 2020, Ms. Panth, co-founder of Jumbo, had gone to Alsara for the
purpose of promoting Jumbo’s digital initiatives, especially project ‘Connect’ and its referral
scheme. It was Rayan, a member of Alsarian Independent Coalition (AIC), who had published a
statement stating that the Prime Minister was guilty of corruption and had misappropriated
public funds to the tune of 10,000,000 anaa. Although this statement was published on ‘Jumbo’
but through the account of Rayan and with regard to Section 190 of the Alsarian Criminal Law
Code, 1910, Ms. Panth should not be held liable for defamation.
1.1 Ms. Panth was arrested for an offence she did not commit nor was party to.
Article 14(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1976, provides that
everyone has a right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, according to law, when
charged with a criminal offence. The same should be kept in consideration whilst the present
matter is being dealt with is what is humbly requested and thus, presented for before the Hon’ble
Court.
Furthermore, Article 15(1) of the Covenant2 provides that no one can be held guilty of a criminal
offence on account of such act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, whether
under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. In the present case, the
offence for which Ms. Panth has been charged with, i.e., defamation, is what has not been
committed by her. She had gone to Alsara only for promoting her company’s initiatives and the
same was not responsible for defaming a person. The person responsible was Rayan and him
alone as he was the one who published derogatory remarks against their Prime Minister.
1.2 Right to freedom of speech and expression of Ms. Panth was violated.

1 Alsarian Criminal Law Code, 1910

2 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1976

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Article 19(2) of the Covenant3 provides that everyone has a right to freedom of expression. And
so does Ms. Panth too and that is what has been denied to her by alleging that she is responsible
for defamation. Ms. Panth was only imparting information about her company and her intention
cannot be proven that she had done so for defaming another. The right which is inherent in the
right to life as well was denied to her for the reason that she was the co-founder of ‘Jumbo’.
There was nothing which she said or did which can constitute defamation but the same is true in
the case of Rayan as he was the one who alleged everything against the Prime Minister of Alsara.
1.3 Ms. Panth was well within her right to freedom of expression for her conduct.
According to Article 19(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, there are
certain restrictions as well on the right to freedom of expression which are as follows: -
(i) In respect to the rights or reputations of others;
(ii) In respect to protection of national security or to public order, or to public health or morals.
When the aforesaid is taken into consideration with respect to the matter at hand, the right to
freedom of expression was exercised within the purview of the restrictions as have been
provided. The violation, if there is, has been on part of Rayan and the statement as published by
him. Furthermore, the Consulate of Histanbul in Alsara was also denied permission to see Ms.
Panth. The permission to meet Ms. Panth would not have violated any law but still the same was
denied to her by the Government of Alsara.
The reasoning which has been put to for building a case against Ms. Panth as well was that she
was the co-founder of the internet service which allowed Rayan to publish such a statement
which led to the Prime Minister’s defamation. The reason why it was allowed to be published in
the first place was that no one can know what a person is pondering upon to publish and thus,
cannot be prevented from doing so. But, that does not corroborate the fact that Ms. Panth is also
equally liable as Rayan. She is not liable at all as there was no involvement of her in the
publishing of the post which contained the defamatory remarks. She didn’t even have the
knowledge about such a publication until she was made party to it.
Thus, it is submitted before the Hon’ble Court that Alsara has violated the freedom of speech and
expression of Ms. Panth by arresting her for an offence which she didn’t commit nor was party
to. The charges as alleged against her should be dropped as it has already done enough damage
to her reputation and that of her company, ‘Jumbo’ as well.

3 Ibid.

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 PRAYER

May it please the Court, for the forgoing reasons, the State of Histanbul respectfully
requests the Court to adjudge and declare:

- That the State of Alsara is responsible for violating the right to freedom of speech
and expression of Ms. Panth.

The Honorable Court is further requested to declare such guidelines as it deems fit and
essential in the present case.