Problems of Harmonization of European and Russian Legislation on Defamation

Russia’s integration into the global information space largely depends on how effectively fundamental human rights and freedoms will be protected by the current national legislation and the emerging integration law. Harmonization of Russian law with European standards of freedom of speech and protection of intangible rights of individuals and legal entities in terms of liability for defamation statements is a fundamentally important task to maintain the authority of the Russian Federation in the European political arena. The work of international human rights organizations, such as the International Press Institute, demonstrates the problems with ensuring real freedom of speech in the vast majority of European Union countries. The use of criminal sanctions for defamation offences, as well as the use of extremely large administrative fines and civil compensation, in fact, is a pan-European practice of countering not only defamation, but also any abuse of freedom of speech by the media community. Such practices could hypothetically threaten free speech, and they raise understandable concerns among the democratic public about the prospects of state institutions controlling private media. Calls for social and legal experiments in the form of regular attempts to decriminalize libel do not seem constructive. Based on the analysis of the Russian practice of bringing to responsibility for torts in the information space, it is proposed to understand defamation as any illegal dissemination of information with the aim of harming legally protected interests and to make wider use of civil liability measures in punishing such offenses. The authors propose to harmonize the European and Russian legislation on defamation through the development of uniform rules for the production of the forensic linguistic examination of the defamatory materials to substantiate evidence of the unlawful intent of delinquent.

1. Avakyan S.A. Vybory v Rossii: evolyutsiya izbiratelnykh sistem, sovremennye problemy [Elections in Russia: evolution of electoral systems, modern problems]. Vestnik moskovskogo universiteta [The Moscow University Herald]. Series 11: Law]. 2015. No. 5. Pp. 23—39.

2. Avakyan S.A. Nekotorye mysli o sostoyanii i perspektivakh konstitutsionno-politicheskogo razvitiya Rossii [Some thoughts on the state and prospects of constitutional and political development of Russia]. Vestnik moskovskogo universiteta. Pravo [The Moscow University Herald. Series 11: Law]. 2016. No. 1. Pp. 3—17.

3. Baetov A. B. Garmonizatsiya prava kak vedushchiy protsess pravovoy integratsii [Harmonization of law as a leading process of legal integration]. Izvestiya vuzov Kyrgyzstana [Kyrgyzstan Tertiary Institutions Bulletin]. 2010. No. 3. Pp. 279—281.

4. Galyashina E.I., Zemskova S.I. Protivorechiya v ponimanii diffamatsii v grazhdanskom kodekse RF i ugolovnom kodekse RF [Contradictions in the understanding of defamation in the Civil code and the Criminal code of the Russian Federation]. Lex Russica. 2011. Vol. 70. No. 6. Pp. 1148-1154.

5. Glandin S.V. Vladimir Slutsker vs Olga Romanova. Anglo-rossiyskoe diffamatsionnoe pravo [Vladimir Slutsker vs Olga Romanova. Anglo-Russian defamation law]. Zakon [Law]. 2016. No.1. Pp. 108—130.

6. Kashkin S.Yu. Integratsionnoe pravo kak perspektivnoe napravlenie razvitiya yuridicheskoy nauki i obrazovaniya [Integration law as a perspective direction of development of legal science and education]. Aktualnye problemy rossiyskogo prava [Actual problems of Russian law]. 2014. No. 10 (47). Pp. 2151-2160.

7. Kirilenko V.P., Alekseev G.V. Aktualnye problemy protivodeystviya prestupleniyam ekstremistskoy napravlennosti [Current problems of counteraction to crimes of extremist orientation]. Vserossiyskiy kriminologicheskiy zhurnal [Russian Journal of Criminology]. 2018. Vol. 12. No. 4. Pp. 561-571. DOI: 10.17150/2500-4255.2018.12(4).561—571.

8. Koshkarova N.N. Kleveta, oskorblenie, diffamatsiya: kriterii razgranicheniya i puti preodoleniya [Slander, insult, defamation: criteria of differentiation and ways of overcoming]. Yurislingvistika [Legal Linguistics]. 2011. No. 1 (11). Pp. 250—252.

9. Krasilnikova O.V. Analiz politicheskogo diskursa nemetskikh internet-izdaniy (na primere osveshcheniya prezidentskoy kampanii 2012 goda v RF) [Analysis of the political discourse of German Internet publications (on the example of coverage of the 2012 presidential campaign in Russia)]. Politicheskaya ekspertiza: PolitEks Publ. 2013. Vol. 9. No. 3. Pp. 216—227.

10. Kulturalnye issledovaniya prava: monografiya [Cultural studies of law: monograph]. Edited by I.L. Chestnov, E.N. Tonkov. Saint Petersburg: Aleteyya Publ., 2018. 464 p.

11. Liverovskiy A.A. Publichnost pravovykh pozitsiy kak garantiya nezavisimosti sudi [Publicity of legal positions as a guarantee of independence of the judge]. Zhurnal konstitutsionnogo pravosudiya [Journal of Constitutional Justice]. 2009. No. 2. Pp. 39—41.

12. Melnik G.S. Takticheskie media v destruktivnykh tekhnologiyakh protesta [Tactical media in destructive technologies of protest]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta [Vestnik of St. Petersburg University]. Psikhologiya i pedagogika [Psychology and pedagogy]. 2015. No. 3. Pp. 83—91.

13. Melnik G.S., Misonzhnikov B.Ya. Takticheskie media: sotsialnye prioritety i pragmatika teksta [Tactical media: social priorities and pragmatics of the text]. Gumanitarnyy vektor [Humanitarian vector]. 2014. No. 4 (40). Pp. 104—109.

14. Morozova A.I. Infoteynment i diffamatsionnye riski [Infotainment and defamation risks]. Vestnik Tverskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Filologiya [Herald of Tver State University. Series: Philology]. 2016. No. 3. Pp. 199—204.

15. Mukhin A.M. Publichnost kak printsip ugolovnogo protsessa [Publicity as the principle of the criminal process]. Problemy prava [Issues of Law]. 2009. No. 3 (19). Pp. 140—142.

16. Nevzgodina E.L., Parygina N.N. Diffamatsiya kak pravovaya kategoriya [Defamation as a legal category]. Vestnik Omskogo universiteta. Seriya: Pravo [Herald of Omsk University]. Series: Law. 2016. No. 2 (47). Pp. 86—94.

17. Nevzgodina E.L., Parygina N.N. Grazhdansko-pravovoy mekhanizm zashchity delovoy reputatsii v Rossii: panoramnyy obzor [Civil-legal mechanism of business reputation protection in Russia: panoramic view]. Lex Russica. 2018. No. 1 (134). Pp. 57-70. DOI:10.17803/1729-5920.2018.134.1.057—070.

18. Parygina N.N. Tonkaya gran i bolshaya raznitsa mezhdu utverzhdeniem o fakte i vyrazheniem mneniya [Fine line and big difference between statement of fact and expression of opinion]. Evraziyskiy yuridicheskiy zhurnal [Eurasian Law Journal]. 2016. No. 10 (101). Pp. 168—172.

19. Podolnyy N.A. Publichnost v ugolovnom sudoproizvodstve [Publicity in criminal proceedings]. Rossiyskiy sudya [Russian Judge]. 2009. No. 11. Pp. 25—28.

20. Rudokvas A.D. Perspektivy sozdaniya edinogo pravovogo prostranstva EAES v svete opyta garmonizatsii chastnogo prava v ES [Prospects for the creation of a single legal space of the EAEU in the light of the experience of harmonization of private law in the EU]. Evraziyskaya ekonomicheskaya perspektiva: sbornik dokladov 5 Mezhdunarodnogo ekonomicheskogo foruma [Eurasian economic perspective: Procs. 5 International Economic Forum]. 2018. Pp. 66—71.

21. Syrykh V.M. Problemy garmonizatsii pozitivnogo i sotsialnogo (predpozitivnogo) chastnogo prava [Problems of harmonization of positive and social (pre-positive) private law]. Lex Russica. 2017. No. 7 (128). Pp. 9-29. DOI: 10.17803/1729-5920.2017.128.7.009-029.

22. Utkin Yu.Yu. Sovremennaya struktura diffamatsii [Modern structure of defamation]. Mir lingvistiki i kommunikatsii: elektronnyy nauchnyy zhurnal [World of Linguistics and Communication: electronic scientific journal]. 2016. No. 45. Pp. 12—15.

23. Ekstremizm v sovremennom mire: monografiya [Extremism in the modern world: monograph]. Edited by A.I. Bastrykin, V.P. Kirilenko, V.A. Shamakhov. North-Western Institute of Management RANEPA. St. Petersburg, 2018. 444 p.

24. Erdelevskiy A.M. O prezumptsii prichineniya moralnogo vreda [On the presumption of causing moral harm]. Khozyaystvo i pravo [Business and Law]. 2017. No. 11 (490). Pp. 102—108.

25. Anstey B. J. Criminal Defamation and Reputation as ‘Honour’: a cross-jurisdictional perspective. Journal of Media Law. 2017. Vol. 9. Iss. 1. Pp. 132-153. DOI: 10.1080/17577632.2017.1311467.

26. Carter-Ruck on Libel and Privacy. C. Doley, H. Starte, C. Addy & oths (eds.). Butterworths Law, 2010. P 1762.

27. Dickinson E.D. The Defamation of Foreign Governments. American Journal of International Law.

28. Vol. 22. Iss. 4. Pp. 840-844. DOI:10.2307/2188440.

29. Golodov G.A. Anthropological Denigration and Vilifying Vocabulary as Verbal Information Strategies of War (in German). Inostrannye yazyki v vysshey shkole [Foreign languages in high school]. 2017. No. 3 (42). Pp. 13—21.

30. Kenyon A.T. Comparative Defamation and Privacy Law. Cambridge University Press, 2016. 400 p. DOI:10.1017/ CBO9781316402467.005.

31. Kenyon A.T., Marjoribanks T. The Future of «Responsible Journalism» Defamation law, public debate and news production. Journalism Practice. 2008. Vol. 2. Iss. 3. Pp. 372-385. DOI:10.1080/17512780802281107.

32. McGonagle T. Freedom of Expression and Defamation: A study of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Council of Europe, 2016.

33. Mills A. The Law Applicable to Cross-Border Defamation on Social Media: Whose Law Governs Free Speech in ‘Facebookistan’? Journal of Media Law. 2015. Vol. 7. Iss. 1. Pp. 1-35. DOI: 10.1080/17577632.2015.1055942.

34. Robinson E.P. Libel by the Numbers: The use of public opinion polls in defamation lawsuits. First Amendment Studies 2017. Vol. 51. Iss. 2. Pp. 62-85. DOI: 10.1080/21689725.2017.1422987.

35. Saunders K.W. Free Expression and Democracy. Cambridge University Press, 2017. DOI: 10.1017/9781316771129.009.