A significant place among the democratic foundations is the recognition by the state of such immutable human freedoms as the honor and dignity of all members of society. Dignity as an ethical category presupposes a symmetry of a person’s internal perception of his own “I” on the one hand, and respect from society on the other. The concept of honor, closely associated with dignity, is characterized in that its own and public perception of the person is based in this case on the achievements and actions of a person.
The Constitution of the Russian Federation declares the unconditional right of everyone to protect privacy, personal as well as family secrets, honor and good name. This constitutional norm is developed in the Civil Code, Article 152 of which secures
citizens the right to judicial protection in cases where the honor and
dignity of a person, his
business reputation , are threatened
. If it is violated through the dissemination of defamatory information, the law imposes the
burden of proof on the person who allowed the popularization of incriminating information. The law does not determine what information is considered defamatory, since their selection lies in the evaluation plane and can only be clarified individually for a specific case when protection of business reputation was required. At the level of clarification of the Plenum of the Supreme Court, information about committing illegal actions, dishonest acts, dishonest behavior in private or public life, dishonesty in business or politics is classified as defamatory. It should be borne in mind that we are talking only about false information, and in the case of dissemination of compromising material containing true information, you should not count on judicial protection. What methods of protection does the legislator offer in cases when honor and dignity are discredited?
If we are talking about facts that can be verified, then on the basis of Article 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation a court decision on the defendant may impose an obligation to compensate for moral and physical suffering
(moral harm). If no facts were presented in the disseminated information, but contained only value judgments, then in defending your honor and dignity you will have to rely on yourself. For example, publish a note in the same or another edition stating your own point of view on the topic. If negative information was disseminated in a way that precluded the possibility of establishing the identity of the citizen responsible for
this act, the court may publish official material with a rebuttal. Thus, the good name of a person whose rights to honor and dignity have been violated will be restored. What can you expect from a court if you need protection of honor and dignity?
The judicial practice of the post-Soviet countries already includes more than a dozen high-profile cases in the field of protection of moral and ethical rights, more real is the proof of
moral harm inflicted in comparison with the Soviet practice, millions of compensations are paid for the suffering. All this testifies to the growing importance of the individual for the state, which is inherent in the democratic system.