Civil Protection For Secrecy In Communication

Serving as two of the fundamental human rights, the freedom and secrecy in communication not only are validated by international human rights pacts and prescribed in China's constitution, but also are under the protection by criminal law and relevant administrative rules. Compared to the above. General Rules of Civil Law of P.R..C does not have specific terms, which, however, should only be considered a careless omission in civil legislation rather than a negation for the secrecy in communication as a concrete civil right. The main reason responsible for this is the less development in China's information industry, the indifference and flabbiness in the legal protection for the secrecy in communication. Item 28th, 'The communication secrecy of natural persons and corporations is under protection by law ", prescribed in chapter four. Law of Personality Rights, of Civil Code ofPRC, which has been planed to submit to the legislature for further discussion and approval, will surely supply such a gap in the General Rules of Civil Law of P.R.C. It's not an exaggeration to say this prescription is a milestone in the legal protection for the secrecy in communication of civil subjects.In this article, much attention is paid to the practical and theoretical value analysis of the civilly legal protection for the secrecy in communication. It is held that secrecy in communication is such secret that is owned by civil subjects according to laws, conveyed through regular mails, telephones, networks and other carriers, and is under the protection of relevant laws. Secrecy in communication, in accordance with its carriers, can possibly be classified into secrecy in post communication, secrecy intele-communication and secrecy in networks communication. The following behaviors are typical infringement on one's secrecy in communication: unenveloping, checking, detaining, sheltering and destroying letters of others illegally, wiretapping and intercepting others' telephone call unlawfully and entering into others' email boxed or inbreaking their websites without the permission of laws. The civil protection for the secrecy in communication of natural persons, corporations and other civil subjects are mainly related to the conflicts between governments' exertion of right to know communication and protection for civil subjects' right of communication, and between the safeguard of employers' interests and the protection for the secrecy in communication of employees. Special discussion on how to balance these conflicts is also made in this article.Breaking through the traditional sphere of personality research and using the research result on constitution, public administration law and criminal law for reference, the author analyzes the secrecy in communication theoretically and systematically from a comparative angle, and safely draws a conclusion that the freedom of communication, both as a constitutional right and as a civil one, is a personality right characterized by dignity and spirit. As the extension and expansion of communication freedom, secrecy in communication, with the selfhood character of personality as well as property, is a realistic basis for the civilly legal protection for communication freedom. The relationship between the freedom of communication and the secrecy in communication is just general and special, and abstract and concrete. Consequently, it is strongly recommended that freedom in communication be put into the civil right protection system and be paralleled with secrecy in communication. Characterized by specialty, secrecy, value and validity, secrecy in communication, as a lower concept than privacy, can be under the protection imposed on privacy. Unlike privacy, which can only be owned by natural persons, the civil subjects of communication can be natural persons, corporations, partners and the alike. The right of communication, which has its own relative independence, consists of maintenance, use, dominance and relief of communication. Meanwhile, it is also an open civil rights system with an...