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If you have been the victim of defamation, you can take criminal action. Defamation offenses are offence against one’s personal honor and are divided into statements of fact, pure value judgments and mixed value judgments. The following article intend to give you an overview of the different kinds of defamation offenses. If you have any questions, please contact our criminal law attorneys.
As a technical term, honor is defined as the call to be an honorable person, i.e. to behave as a person of decent character is generally believed to behave. The definition of honor according to the normative concept of honor is the validity to which its bearer may lay claim. The scope of protected honor is limited to the human-moral sphere. Violating personal honor means making someone appear contemptible as a human being. Crimes of defamation violate personal honor.
Essential for the classification of defamation as a factual claim is whether the defamatory statement can be verified for its truthfulness by means of evidence. A lawyer for criminal law in St. Gallen, Zurich or Frauenfeld can answer whether this is specifically possible.
A pure value judgment is an expression of disregard, without the statement being recognizably based on specific facts that can be corrected in light of proof.
In the case of a mixed value judgment the valuation has a recognizable reference to facts.
Defamation occurs when someone makes a factual statement or a mixed value judgment about the victim to a third party, which violates the personal honor. It is sufficient if the victim makes an accusation against or casts suspicion on another person’s dishonorable conduct or another fact that is likely to damage their reputation. A mixed value judgment is a value judgment with a recognizable reference to a factual assertion.
However, the offender can exonerate themselves and remain unpunished if they can provide substantial grounds (Art. 173 No. 2 SCC). This is possible if the defamation was based on the truth or the offender had serious reason to believe it to be true. If the perpetrator only made the statement to accuse the victim of evil, exculpatory evidence cannot be provided. Whether you are able to provide sufficient exculpatory evidence can be examined by our team of criminal lawyers in Frauenfeld, Zurich or St. Gallen.
Wilful defamation is defamation against one’s better knowledge. The offender makes a statement or casts suspicion on the behaviour of a third party, although he knows that this is untrue. Evidence of exoneration is not possible in the case of wilful defamation.
Anyone who verbally attacks someone’s honor in writing, images, gestures or physical actions is liable to prosecution. It is therefore applicable in the case of an assertion of fact, a pure value judgement or a mixed value judgement against the person to whom the law applies. In addition, a pure value judgment or a mixed value judgment can be accompanied by an insult against a third party. If the insult is directly retorted with an insult or assault, the offender may be exempted from punishment (Art. 177 para. 3 SCC).