The level of legal security of citizen journalists and social media users participating in public debate. Standards developed in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

In order to assess the level of legal security of social media users and so-called citizen journalists, we need to answer the question that according to current EU journalistic laws, information published by them can be granted the status of expression for journalistic purposes and, if so, under what conditions could this be done? In order to achieve this purpose, a review of literature, acts of law, their discussion and interpretation was conducted, and the netnography method was applied. Our analysis shows that social media users have the same rights when exercising freedom of expression as professional journalists. In our opinion equalising the legal status of an ordinary publication with a press release, both from the perspective of Article 10 of the ECHR and Article 85 of the GDPR, takes place under certain conditions. They are listed on a casuistic basis in the jurisdiction of the ECtHR and the ECJ and interpreted according to the concept of social media responsibility. The conducted research shows, however, that assessing the legal status of the user's speech is very complicated and requires legal knowledge and knowledge of jurisprudence. This factor significantly affects the level of information security and the actual scope of protection of the freedom of speech of Internet users participating in public debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]