Comparative Law Researches

Comparative Law Researches

Conflict or Non-Conflict of Criminal Defamation and Freedom of Expression in the Egypt's Legal System

Document Type : Original Research

Author
محمد حسن Hasani
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Humanitarian Sciences, University of Damghan, Damghan, Iran
Abstract
The criminalization of defamation (Libel) in order to protecting human dignity has raised the challenge of its conflict with the right to freedom of expression. Establishing a fair balance between the right to freedom of expression and the dignity of citizens requires the adoption of reasonable legal strategy. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the conflict or non-conflict of criminal defamation and freedom of expression with a descriptive-analytical approach in the Egypt's legal system. According to the results of the research, the Egypt's legal system, by criminalizing personal defamation on the one hand and decriminalizing public defamation on the other hand, and on the condition of correcting some of its shortcomings, lead to compatibility between criminal defamation and the right to freedom. In this way, while supporting human dignity, it avoid unnecessary limitation of the principle of freedom of speech, especially by those in power.
Keywords
Defamation
Freedom of expression
Persons' Reverence
Human dignity
Human Rights

Subjects

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34-,Harpwood ,Vivienne(2009). Modern Tort Law, London and New York, Routledge-Cavendish.
B) Articles
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36- Yanchukova, Elena(2003). "Criminal defamation and insult laws: An infringement on the freedom of expression in European and post-Communist jurisdictions",Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Vol. 3,pp. 861-894
C) Others
37- General comment no. 34, Article 19, Freedoms of opinion and expression, Human Rights Committee102nd session, Geneva, 11-29 July 2011. accessed November 25, 2023, https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/docs/gc34.pdf
38- "Towards decriminalisation of defamation", accessed October 15, 2022, https://assembly.coe.int