Law on Freedom of Speech and Expression

(1) Granting “Freedom of speech and expression” (art 3), “Protection of confidential information and sources (art 11)” and “Liability for disclosure of a secret” (art 12).

(2) Any restriction of a right guaranteed and protected by this law shall be legitimate only if it is introduced by a clear and foreseeable, narrowly tailored law, and the public interest served by the aim of the restriction exceeds the damage to freedom of expression caused by the restriction. Any restriction of a right guaranteed and protected by this law shall be: (a) directly intended at fulfillment of a legitimate aim; (b) critically necessary in a democratic society; (c) non-discriminatory; and (d) proportionate to the aim of the restriction (art 8).

(3) The content of any form of speech or expression may be regulated only in pursuit of the following aims: (a) restricting defamation; (b) restricting obscenity; (c) restricting incitement to violence or grave public disorder; (d) restricting incitement to commit an offence; (e) restricting threats; (f) protecting State, commercial, private or professional secrets; (g) the regulation of advertising, TV-shopping or sponsorship of media output; (h) regulating speech of military servicemen or administrative agencies and their officials, members or employees; (i) regulating the speech and expression of detained persons or persons whose liberty has been restricted pursuant to law; (j) regulating the speech and expression of persons with no or limited legal capacity (art 9).

(4) Enumerating the circumstances in which a statement shall not attract liability for defamation (art 5), the Law provides in Article 6 that: (i) in any dispute relating to allegedly defamatory matter published by a journalist in the media, the owner of the media outlet concerned shall be the sole respondent; (ii) statements relating to an unidentifiable group of persons or from which no single person can be identified shall never lead to court proceedings for defamation; (iii) the private non-property rights of a deceased person, the state or its administrative bodies do not enjoy any protection for the purpose of defamation proceedings; (iv) person who is not the author of a statement or whose role in disseminating a statement is limited to providing the technical capacity shall never be the respondent in defamation proceedings, unless he or she openly supports the statement; (v) during court proceedings relating to defamation, the court shall take steps to affect a settlement of the dispute between the parties; a court may postpone judicial proceedings in a case and set aside a period of time not exceeding one month in which a settlement should be attempted.

(5) The Law provides for responsibility for any defamation of a private (art 13) and public person (art 14) and compensation for it (art 17). Additionally, the Law provides that “If a person makes a correction or retraction within the term established by law but the correction or denial is not sufficient to compensate the damage caused to the claimant by publication of the defamatory statement, the court may impose compensation of actual and/or moral damages” (art 17).