Yaroslav the Wise National Law University of Ukraine

Yaroslav Pylypets

3 Course, 3 Group, 1 Faculty

The punishment for the defamation in Ukraine

Defamation is traditionally determined as public dissemination of real information that humiliates dignity or business reputation of a citizen or organization. This act has been regarded a crime in criminal codes of many countries.

This topic is actual because over time Ukrainian government will adopt a Code of criminal offenses, and now there is discussion about inclusion this concept into this document. Many scientists argue about that, because in Ukraine there has already been criminal liability for the dissemination of information that humiliates dignity or business reputation of a citizen or organization. And the question is: whether to consider this action to be a crime and if the responsibility for the defamation should be renewed in Ukrainian criminal legislation?

If we look at Criminal Codes of different countries we will see that there is the punishment for the defamation. Modern international legal norms that fix the rule of law, prohibit illegal interference to the privacy and family life, forbid attacks on the honor and reputation and declare the right of everyone to protect against such interference or attacks. Thereby it is not surprising that the legislation of many countries interprets the defamation as a crime. This phenomenon is generally considered as dissemination of facts that discredit the reputation .

There are the liability for defamation under the Criminal Code in such European countries as Austria ( st.111 ), Belgium ( ch.V ), Italy ( st.595 ), Portugal ( st.180 ) Croatia ( stst.199 , 1992, 2001, 2002 ), Finland ( ch.24 , stst.9 , 10), Denmark ( st.267 ), Norway ( ch.23 , stst.246 , 247 , 248 ), Brazil ( st.139 ) and others. For example, in South Korea there is the penalty of imprisonment up to seven years for the defamation. There, they consider that the reputation of a person is more important than freedom of speech.

However, in Ukraine there is another situation. Any person can give their opinion about everything, people can express their ideas about government, judiciary, politicians etc. I believe no one should be prosecuted for defamation. Let`s take, for instance, journalists who publish such kind of information in magazines and newspapers. Anyone should not be afraid to tell the facts that are true about someone, even if it degrades the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen.

It is also important to mention that article 11 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine indicates that crime under this Code is a guilty socially dangerous act committed by an offender. It is obvious that a defamation is not socially dangerous. Furthermore, there are private relations between two people and there is nothing to do for the state. In addition , in many countries the verdict in a criminal case does not provide any compensation to a person whose honor and dignity were humuliated, as a fine is immediately transferred to the state treasury.

Besides, every person has the right of access to the information, and if there is the liability for defamation this right will be limited. People will not be able to watch any news, find any information in the internet etc.

As I mentioned above, defamation is dissemination of defamatory information, which can not carry slander, and this act is similar to libel, but there are some differences: in criminal defamation there is spread of shame information regardless of the truth and libel is message always perceived as obviously false information. We have to differ these two concepts, and in my opinion it would be better to include penalties only for libel.

There is one more thing I would like to admit. We know that in Ukraine like in many other countries there is developed corruption. And, for instance, if a person commits a crime, she will be able easier to avoid the liability, bribing the police, because almost nobody will know about that fact. Also, mostly powerful people-officials and businessmen initiate the adoption of such, because they often abuse the law , trying to protect themselves from criticism or exposion truthful information.

So I believe that attract of a person to criminal liability for the dissemination of true information that humiliates dignity or business reputation of a citizen is improperly and I hope that lawmakers will not include that concept to the Code of criminal offenses.

The list of used literature:

1. The Constitution of Ukraine № 254k/96-VR on June 28, 1996 / / http://zakon.rada.gov.ua.

2. The Criminal Code of Ukraine № 2341-III, April 5, 2001 / /

3. Penal Code of Sweden.

4. The Criminal Code of Albania.

5. The Criminal Code of the Czech Republic.

6. The Criminal Code of South Korea.

7. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights . adopted on December 16, 1966 by the UN General Assembly . doc . A/RES/2200 A (XXI).