44 MORICE v. FRANCE JUDGMENT protection of freedom of expression, with a particularly narrow margin of appreciation accordingly being afforded to the authorities. (c) The nature of the impugned remarks 154. The Court notes that after the applicant’s remarks had been found “particularly defamatory” he had been unable to establish their veracity on the basis of evidence that, according to the Criminal Court, had to “be flawless and complete and relate directly to all the allegations found to be defamatory” (see paragraph 40 above). His defence of good faith was also rejected. On that point, the Criminal Court and the Court of Appeal took the view, in particular, that the attacks on the professional and moral integrity of Judges M. and L.L. clearly overstepped the right of permissible criticism (see paragraphs 40 and 50 above). In addition, while the Criminal Court took the view that the profound disagreements between Mrs Borrel’s lawyers and the investigating judges could not justify a total lack of prudence in their expression, the Court of Appeal concluded that the decision in the applicant’s favour to discontinue the proceedings brought against him by the two judges did not rule out bad faith on his part. It held that the applicant’s personal animosity and the wish to discredit the judges, in particular Judge M., stemmed from the excessive nature of his comments and from the fact that the article on the Borrel case had been published at the same time as the bringing of proceedings against Judge M. before the Indictment Division in connection with the “Scientology” case (ibid.). 155. As the Court has already observed, it is necessary to distinguish between statements of fact and value judgments (see paragraph 126 above). The existence of facts can be demonstrated, whereas the truth of value judgments is not susceptible of proof; a requirement to prove the truth of a value judgment is impossible to fulfil and infringes freedom of opinion itself, which is a fundamental part of the right secured by Article 10 (ibid.). In addition, the existence of procedural safeguards for the benefit of a defendant in defamation proceedings is among the factors to be taken into account in assessing the proportionality of an interference under Article 10. In particular, it is important for the defendant to be afforded a realistic chance to prove that there was a sufficient factual basis for his allegations (see, among other authorities, Steel and Morris v. the United Kingdom, no. 68416/01, § 95, ECHR 2005-II; Andrushko v. Russia, no. 4260/04, § 53, 14 October 2010; Dilipak and Karakaya v. Turkey, nos. 7942/05 and 24838/05, § 141, 4 March 2014; and Hasan Yazıcı v. Turkey, no. 40877/07, § 54, 15 April 2014). No such chance was afforded in the present case. 156. The Court takes the view that, in the circumstances of the case, the impugned statements were more value judgments than pure statements of fact, in view of the general tone of the remarks and the context in which they were made, as they reflected mainly an overall assessment of the conduct of the investigating judges in the course of the investigation.