Balance Protection Between Freedom Of Speech And Right Of Privacy In The Cyberspace

Freedom of speech is a fundamental right of our citizens, it is one of the most important rights regulated and protected by the Constitution, and is considered as an indispensable concept in modern democracy. Constitution of the People's Republic of China, Article 35 stipulates:"Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy Freedom of Speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration."With the development of the Internet, Freedom of Speech has been given new ideas and expressions, we can say today the network is relatively provides for the speech a more free environment. As the"Fourth media"following the newspaper, radio and television, Internet opens a real time of "free speech".Freedom of Speech in cyberspace embodies the force of public opinion, its High Participation, Openness, Accommodation, besides it's across time and space, Hypertext, High Capacity, Strong Interaction, providing the real world with an unprecedented super large public space. Freedom speech in cyberspace plays its value in many ways: its Interactive, Timeliness and Global in network information, makes the cyberspace speech break the monopoly that the traditional mass media does to the right of speech. Freedom of Speech in cyberspace expands the participation of Freedom of Speech; anyone may express their speech freely at any place and time, without the influence of the material conditions, personal background and education, etc. It promotes cultural communication, greatly reduce the spreading cost, and improve the efficiency, conductive to spreading the culture and carrying out the education. It plays as a social "relief valve", to provide a free space for people, allows them to vent their discontent in reality; relieve their stress, relieve pain, and ease the social conflicts. At the same time, cyberspace speech shows the great vitality of supervision in exposing corruption and dereliction; condemn the phenomenon of duty loss. Uphold equity and justice in society strongly.Right of Privacy is also the civil rights stipulates by our constitution. Right of Privacy in cyberspace is an extension of privacy in the field of network. Constitution Article 38 stipulates:"The personal dignity of citizens of the People's Republic of China is inviolable."Article 39:"The residences of citizens of the People's Republic of China are inviolable."Article 40:"Freedom and privacy of correspondence of citizens of the People's Republic of China are protected by law."Civil law protects the Right of Privacy avoiding violation of other natural persons, while constitution protects the Right of Privacy avoiding violation of state organs and state power.Because of the characteristic of the cyberspace speech, such as No centralized, Anonymity, Perceptual and Emotional, Instant Feedback, and weak in checking, privacy disputes followed. Internet users disclosed others'real name, contact information, love and marriage willfully, causing the victim great and irreparable damage. Problems are even more serious when concerning the imbalance protection in the aspects of legal between them. From the aspects of Freedom of Speech in cyberspace: Legislation delays it and the intent of legislation also ignores it; Legislative level is low and difficult to operate; Legislation is general and lack openness. From the aspects of Right of Privacy in cyberspace: The provisions of the Privacy is scattered and pay insufficient attention to it, even no legal basis.Thus, we must find the point of balance between the Freedom of Speech and Right of Privacy in the cyberspace, to realize balance protection. On the one hand, protecting the Freedom of Speech in cyberspace; On the other hand protecting the Right of Privacy in cyberspace. Admit the value of Freedom of Speech in cyberspace positively; Give it reasonable restrictions at the same time. In addition, we need to clarify the defense of infringement in cyberspace: distinguish the cyberspace speech base on the public interest and others'consent; distinguish the speech that have already been handled as not identified and be known to the public; distinguish the State officials and public figures'cyberspace privacy. Finally, we need to establish balance protection mechanisms between two of them in legislation, administration and judicial level.