The Identification Of Defamation In The Public Security Management Punishment Law

As a fundamental right, freedom of speech is the extremely important character and value of a society. Freedom of speech is not an absolute right, but a non-derogable right, the exercise of which is restricted by the right of reputation. defamation grossly violates citizens’ reputation, thus rightly becoming the regulating object of law, article 42 of our "Public Security Management Punishment Law" has made clear regulation. In recent years, according to the provisions of "Public Security Management Punishment Law", our public security organs have maintained our citizens’ rights of reputation to a great extent. However, the abuse of defamation provisions has limited citizens’ freedom of speech to a certain extent, especially the speech involving national public officials. The fundamental reason is that the standard of defamation is vague and freedom of speech is not taken into account. Accordingly, based on the view of freedom of speech, this article holds that defamation in "Public Security Management Punishment Law" shouldn’t be identified without the consideration of freedom of speech, which is demonstrated from the aspects of jurisprudence, laws and facts. This article also indicates the key to identify defamation and definite the applicable scope of defamation according to the interpretation of constitution. Moreover, based on China’s national conditions, and learning from advanced external experiences, this article sums up three types of speech, on which the application of libel provisions should be limited, those are supervisory speech, mistakenly believed but true speech and fair comment speech.