Welcome to Verbo, the European Audiovisual Observatory’s database dedicated to regrouping all of the IRIS Newsletter articles on the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) case-law on freedom of expression, of the media and of journalists.

The summaries included in the database have been reported in the IRIS Newsletter since 1994 and can be retrieved from our legal database, IRIS Merlin.

A journey through freedom of expression

Originally launched as an e-book, IRIS Themes was a compilation of all IRIS Newsletter articles on the case law of the ECtHR relating to freedom of expression.

2025 marks the 10th anniversary of this initiative, prepared in collaboration with our long-standing partner institution, the Institute for Information Law (IViR) of the University of Amsterdam.

To commemorate this milestone, we have integrated all articles from the past 10 years into a dynamic database for easy access and exploration.

Thank you to Prof. Tarlach McGonagle (IViR), who conceived the original idea of the e-book, but also designed and formatted it, and to Prof. Dirk Voorhoof (Universities of Ghent and Copenhagen), who authored the summaries of the judgments and the decisions of the Court. He has been a steadfast IRIS correspondent since the very early days.

How to use the database?

Our intuitive interface makes navigating Verbo effortless.

You can filter articles based on:

- Keywords

- Case outcomes

- Countries involved

- Year of decision

- Plain text search

Search results are displayed in an easy-to-read list format and can be exported as a PDF for convenience. Additionally, users can open individual articles in new tabs for quick sharing via direct links. Access to full ECtHR decisions referenced in the articles is also available.

The database is updated regularly, with new articles added as they are published in the IRIS Newsletter.