The Research On Civil Liability Of News Organizations Infringe Upon The Public Figures' Reputation Right

With the development of technology,the way of news reports are no longer limited to newspapers and magazines,but more through the Internet,Weibo,WeChat and other channels to publicize hot events and focus news.In view of this,News organizations in order to gain a foothold in the fierce information market competition,they deliberately make some exaggerated,novel,even " title does not agree with the article " headlines to catch the public eye.So that,Internet,Weibo,WeChat brings us convenient information immediacy,but for some people,it's the impact and challenges to protect the reputation of public figures.Since the implementation of "General Principles of the Civil Law” in 1987,there have been five waves of news litigation in China.From "small potato to prosecute organ" at 30 years ago,to the " Super stars to prosecute the tabloids" in the 90's.And from the “Enterprise legal person prosecute the news media” to the “Officials sue news media”,The last to “Public figures in view of the news media coverage to Sue news media agencies,publishers,news reshipments”,etc.Through more than 30 years of judicial practice,the public has become familiar with the concept of "public figures",and the judge also made public figures' toleration obligation as the case for numerous news organizations to infringe the public figures' reputation infringement.But our laws have not yet formally incorporated the concept of "public figures" into law,there is also no distinction between public figures and ordinary citizens,it leads to the phenomenon of "similar cases but different judgments".For what is the concept and range of "public figures"? How to distinguish the right to protect the reputation of public figures? How to define the burden of proof and the subject of tort liability in different reputation infringement? How to solve the freedom of speech and public figures reputation conflict and balance? What is the duty of tolerance for public figures? These problems are still difficult problems in legal theory and judicial practice.The article is divided into five parts.The first part is the use of the typical case--"Fang Zhouzi v.Legal Weekend Newspaper reputation infringement dispute",which brings out the core problem of the public figure's reputation infringement: the special assessment criteria and the extent to which public figures are tolerated by news organizations,whether the news organization has a legitimate defense against the public figure's reputation infringement,how to balance the rights conflicts between the right to free speech and the reputation right of public figures.The second part introduces the concept and legal characteristics of public figures.To analyze the particularity of public figures' reputation infringement by news organizations,adopt "four elements" to identify the civil liability of the news organization for the public character's reputation infringement.Finally,combining with the news organizations,free speech and the right of reputation of public figures source analysis of conflict and balance between the two rights mechanism is that placed restrictions on public figures reputation balance the conflict of rights protection and use profit measurement to balance the right conflict.The third part introduces news organizations for public figures reputation infringement the basic content of the main way for news organizations reported inaccurate,insult,defamatory comments,sufficient to mislead the public comments,"the title party",not mention by name,such as common infringement and match the corresponding typical cases.The fourth part analyze the lack of legislation and the shortcomings of "similar cases but different judgments",the distribution of burden of proof is unclearly in judicial practice.The last part is aiming at the shortcomings of the current private law relief,suggested by a clear definition of the concept of public figures in the legislation and standardize public figure's judgment standard public figures,the boundary of the tolerance obligation,placed legal advice to restrict on public figures.At the same time,according to malicious tort by news organizations or public figures maliciously use news reports to achieve a "famous" purpose,and propose to establish a punitive damages system when malicious infringement lawsuit was brought up.To rationalize the burden of proof and clarify the legal defence of the disclaimer or responsibility of the news organization,in order to improve the system of civil liability for news organizations Infringe upon the public figures' reputation.