Research On The Fundamental Right Of "Meinungsfreiheit" In Germany

“Meinungsfreiheit” is a fundamental right in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic ofGermany.Firstly, this right does not protect all kinds of opinion. Generally speaking, it only protects“Werturteil”. Only when “Sachbehauptung” constitutes the premise of the forming of opinion,is it protected. Besides, the false statement of facts is not protected, except when it is stated ingood will. Neither is the critic in the form of insult. The Basic Law includes the freedom ofmedia, the freedom of information, the freedom of assembly and the freedom of art, and theUN Covenant on the Civil and Political Right includes the freedom of opinion and thefreedom of expression. Any of these rights is not only relevant with “Meinungsfreiheit”, butalso is different from it.Secondly, the limits of “Meinungsfreiheit” in the empire of Weimar and the limits of it inthe Federal Republic of Germany are different. And in the age of the Federal Republic, theFederal Constitutional Court has enhanced the protection of the fundamental rights through“Wechselwirkungslehre”. Besides, in this age, according to the text of the Basic Law, the“Meinungsfreiheit” is limited by three justifications, namely the general law, the law of youthprotection and the right of personal honor. In the constitutional practice, the most importantand the most often appeared limit is the general law. On the question of what is general law,there are two main theories: the theory of special rights and the theory of balancing. But theFederal Constitutional Court connects them. Besides, this court believes that in the light of thetheory of the effect of radiation (“Stralungswirkung”) the general law includes the Civil Law.As another limit of “Meinungsfreiheit”, the law of youth protection seldom invokesarguments. And both the federal authority and the governments of lands have taken effectivemeasures to protect the youth from the erosion of bad information. The third justification ofthe right of personal honor was often mentioned in the decisions of the Federal ConstitutionalCourt. And in these decisions this court expressed its own opinion on this subject, such asonly personnel enjoys the right of honor, this right must be included in the general law and soon. These opinions have triggered lots of disputes. Besides those three limits in the Basic Law,the Federal Constitutional Court found out another law that could impose restrictions on“Meinungsfreiheit” in the case of Wunsiedel. In this case, although this court admitted that the4th paragraph of the130th Article in the Criminal Code violated the fundamental right of “Meinungsfreiheit” of the people who took part in the assembly that defended the Nazi, thisviolation was justified. The final decision reflected that this court had great courage toconfront this problem.Thirdly, in the system of the Federal Constitutional Court, there is enhanced mechanism toprotect all kinds of fundamental rights. This mechanism is foremost relevant with theproceedings of constitutional complaint in the Federal Constitutional Court Law. Theseproceedings include the precondition when the complaint is fielded before this court, thelimitation of the proceedings, the ground and the acceptance of the complaint and the result ofthe final decision. In addition, this mechanism has connection with the object of the trail, thespecific steps and the degree of strictness of the court’s review in the cases relating with“Meinungsfreiheit”.Lastly, the fundamental right of “Meinungsfreiheit” changes when the tendency ofglobalization becomes stronger and stronger and the technology of media develops faster andfaster.