Article for libel in 2021. Responsibility and punishment for slander and insult.

This is slander

In the modern world, various confrontations and conflicts are not uncommon, which are not always conducted honestly.
One of the most common weapons of the information age is information itself. Used from a certain angle and for a specific purpose, they can harm another person, sometimes much more seriously than other methods of influence. For example, insult and slander are quite commonly used methods of influencing a person. Both ways have consequences described in the legislation of the Russian Federation. Slander is the dissemination and communication of information that is not true. Moreover, only that action in which it is known in advance that the information is false is considered slander. There is an addition according to which the list of information includes information that discredits the dignity or honor of another person, as well as having a negative impact on his reputation.

Administrative liability for insult

Article 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for liability for insult, that is, humiliation of the honor and dignity of another person, expressed in an indecent form.

The key circumstances are that the person’s actions humiliate the honor and dignity of another person, and are also expressed in an indecent form. Unlike slander, it does not matter whether the information provided is true or not.

The above norm of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation also provides for liability for insult contained in a public speech, publicly displayed work or the media and failure to take measures to prevent insult in a publicly displayed work or media.

The legislation provides for liability in the form of a fine for committing this administrative offense. Depending on the subject brought to administrative responsibility, as well as the part of Article 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation under which the subject is brought, the amount of the fine imposed varies: for citizens it ranges from one to five thousand rubles, for officials from ten to fifty thousand rubles, and for legal entities from thirty to five hundred thousand rubles.

In accordance with Article 28.4 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, the case of an administrative offense provided for in Article 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation is initiated by the prosecutor. In connection with the above, it is necessary to contact the prosecutor’s office with a statement about the commission of this offense.

Article for libel in 2021

The article was adopted in 2012, but amendments were made in 2021, so for 2021 the article “Slander” has an edited form. According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, libel is divided into 5 subtypes, each of which has a comment and a separately described type of punishment.

It is worth considering in more detail each concept that makes up the term “libel.” Comments to the article “Slander”:

Dissemination means that the information has been communicated to others. Moreover, this includes absolutely any methods - written, audio, and video materials. You can also slander a person using the media (radio, newspapers, television), the Internet or in personal communication. Even a contact between just two people resulting in false information may be subject to legal action;
Knowingly (knowingly false) - the slanderer knew for sure in advance that the information he was reporting did not correspond to reality;
Falsehood is not conformity with the truth;
Defaming dignity - belittling a person’s personality in the eyes of the public. For example, this includes information according to which a person committed, participated in, or witnessed an illegal or immoral act.

It is worth noting separately that, according to Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, only an individual can be a victim or plaintiff, while a legal entity does not have the opportunity to sue on the basis of this provision.

Compilation rules

Many people are interested in how to sue for libel. A sample application can be obtained from the police or courthouse. An application to the magistrate's court must contain certain information:

Name of the organ.
Information about the slander that occurred, circumstances, time, place.
Request to accept the case.
Information about the victim, his passport details.
Information about the alleged violator.
List of witnesses to be called.
Applicant's signature.

The application should be submitted with copies for the persons whom the victim wants to bring to justice.

If the applicant has fulfilled all the requirements, the court will begin proceedings. One week after submitting the application:

The alleged culprit is summoned to court.
He is introduced to the case.
A copy of the application is issued.
Explain rights.
Find out the list of witnesses who should be called as defense.

Punishment for libel

There are five subtypes of slander, for each of which the accused bears a certain punishment. It is worth describing separately the punishment for each type of slander:

Dissemination of false information that negatively affects a person’s reputation is punishable by a fine or mandatory labor. The fine in this case will be up to 500,000 rubles or will be equal to the salary (or other type of income) of the culprit for the last six months, compulsory work has a period of up to 160 hours;
Information contained in a work publicly displayed or disseminated through the media and the Internet. In this case, the fine is up to 1,000,000 rubles or the amount of income for the last year, and work lasting up to 240 hours;
Slander committed with the use of official position. Fine - up to 2,000,000 rubles or income for the last 2 years, work - up to 320 hours;
The following two types of false information are punished equally: those containing information about a crime of a sexual nature and those containing information about a disease dangerous to others. Fine - up to 3,000,000 rubles or income for the last 3 years, work - up to 400 hours;
Slander about the commission of a grave or special grave crime. Fine - up to 5,000,000 rubles or the amount of income for the last 3 years, work - up to 480 hours.

There is no exact mention of punishment in each paragraph; moreover, there are two options - a fine or compulsory labor. The decision remains with the court, which, having considered a separate case, makes the final decision.

What to do if you are accused of theft?

Many people get lost in such a situation - especially decent people for whom an honest name is valuable. Citizens are trying to prove that they are innocent. Each case is individual, events may be different. That is why we recommend not to try to prove innocence on your own, but to enlist the support of a competent lawyer.

Filed a complaint about money theft

The most important rule in such a situation is not to panic and stick to your line.

Rules for communicating with the police:

if you have a lawyer, ask him to come urgently; if he cannot do this, get a consultation remotely;
do not talk to the police until a defense lawyer appears;
behave correctly and confidently, listen to all the evidence and accusations. Pressure, as a rule, is applied only if there is no evidence of guilt;
do not respond to offers to return money. If you give them back, it will be an indirect confirmation of guilt.

In order for the court to impose a punishment, evidence is needed. These include:

documentation;
video recordings;
audio recordings.

If there are none, according to the law, prosecution is impossible. But as experience shows, people often encounter prejudice and incorrect actions by the police. In this case, it is best to enlist the support of a lawyer who will help you prove your non-involvement in the accusation.

During the investigation it is necessary:

stick to one line of defense and insist on the falsity of the accusations;
if there are witnesses who confirm that you are right (the more evidence in your favor, the better), tell the inquiry officer (investigator) about this;
apply for recordings from cameras installed at the place of the alleged theft, and at the place where you were at that time.

Note!
All written requests must be sent by postal mail or delivered in person. In the second case, ask for a receipt stamp on your copy. All unfounded refusals should be appealed to the prosecutor's office or a lawsuit should be filed.

For your own protection, you can write a statement about intentional accusations (according to Article 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The punishment for such an offense is quite serious.

Unpleasant situation in the store

Supermarket security is responsible for maintaining order in the store and preventing possible theft. Any buyer may find himself in a situation where a person is groundlessly accused of theft by a security guard who wants to earn an additional bonus.

Employees usually demand to see the contents of pockets and bags. This is illegal. The security guard can only detain the citizen until the police arrive.

Arbitrage practice

Judicial practice under the article “Slander”, unfortunately, does not have the most positive information for victims, since in most cases the decision is not made in favor of the plaintiff. The reason for this is the vagueness of the wording in the law itself; there are no precise definitions. In addition, the evidence base is most often built on the testimony of witnesses, which does not always have real weight in court. Exceptions, perhaps, will be cases when there is evidence in the form of audio or video material, as well as printed newspapers, correspondence, etc.

As a rule, the most difficult thing in an accusation is to prove the elements of the crime, that is, it is necessary to show that the slanderer actually had malicious intent and committed the act intentionally, which means that for him the information was deliberately false.

A few examples of cases brought under this article:

A case was presented to the court in which one person insulted another over the phone using profanity. A linguistic examination was carried out, as a result of which it was revealed that the words “idiot” and “fool” are not insults, but only evaluate a person based on his behavior. For this reason the accused was acquitted;
The boss allowed himself to speak out about his subordinate in the workplace, namely, he accused the subordinate of coming to work drunk. This was not true, and the subordinate went to court to find the truth, since this statement negatively affected his reputation. However, the court found that in this case there was no corpus delicti: the boss heard this information from other employees, which means that he had no malicious intent;
A domestic quarrel during which both parties uttered a lot of abusive and profanity towards each other. It was precisely because the slander and insults came from both participants in the case that the court decided that it was not necessary to impose a fine or compulsory labor.

Another factor complicating the practice of recognizing slander is the lack of a basis. People quite rarely go to court under this article, which is why there is no established judicial practice on which to rely. However, recently there are more and more such cases, for this reason it is possible that already in 2021 the article “Slander” will have more convictions.

Bodies to which the application should be submitted

Russian legislation provides for 2 types of liability on how to prosecute for libel:

Civil law, when the perpetrator must compensate for the damage caused by the crime in monetary terms according to a decision made by the district court.
Criminal law, when the perpetrator is brought to criminal responsibility, and he has to serve the sentence imposed by the court. Responsibility of this type can be achieved in two different ways - by contacting the magistrates' court or the police with a corresponding statement. The method of initiating a criminal case depends on the circumstances clearly defined by law.

That is, the authority to which the application should be submitted directly depends on the method of defense that the victim has chosen. Before writing a statement, you need to have a clear idea of whether libel can be proven in court. For this purpose, audio recordings, correspondence and other means are used.

Slander and insult

It is also worth distinguishing between the two concepts of “slander” and “insult”. Slander is the communication to others and the dissemination of deliberately false information, which leads to a negative impact on a person’s reputation, while insult is an obscene statement about a person. Hence: libel is a crime, insult is an administrative offense. Slander points to certain facts, insult simply evaluates a person from a negative side.

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Types of liability and regulations

There may be three types of liability in the topic under discussion: administrative for insult - Article 5.61 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses (hereinafter - the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation), criminal for libel - Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter - the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and civil liability, provided for in Article 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

An important source from which you can obtain information on this issue, in addition to the above rules of law, is the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated February 24, 2005 No. 3 “On judicial practice in cases of protecting the honor and dignity of citizens, as well as the business reputation of citizens and legal entities.” (hereinafter referred to as PPVS No. 3 dated February 24, 2005), which I strongly recommend that you read it.

Regardless of what type of liability we are potentially talking about, to determine the fact that certain information is defamatory, undermines reputation, humiliates honor and dignity, or is expressed in an indecent form, an examination may be necessary.

Actions in case of accusation

If you are the victim of a libel accusation that you did not commit, you should immediately contact the accuser directly. It is possible that both of you were victims of a misunderstanding, and therefore can avoid the need to go to court.

But if the prosecutor refuses to take back his words and continues to insist on your guilt, there is nothing left but to begin preparing for the trial. So, the applicant will need to take care of collecting:

Evidence supporting the dissemination of false information: photographs, audio and video recordings, witness statements, links to articles and media publications, etc.;
Materials confirming the falsity and harmfulness of the disseminated information;
Documentation that confirms the nature of awareness, premeditation, intentionality of the actions of the accused person.

As for the person accused of spreading false information, he will need to prepare:

Original video or audio recordings from a public speech in which, according to the statement of the victim of libel, he reproduced false accusations in front of the public;
If a person is facing an accusation in which he allegedly used his official position, then he will need to take care of collecting materials, confirming each of them with the appropriate legislative reference;
Witness testimony, audio or video recordings confirming the spread of false information by third parties.

If in the end it turns out that the charge of libel is fabricated, i.e. is false, the person who originally reported it will be prosecuted under Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

To do this, the accused party will initially need to file a counterclaim. It would also be a good idea to involve an experienced lawyer in the case, who will assist not only at the stage of preparing materials for the court, but will also accompany you at all stages of the trial.

Institutions of appeal

In order for an accused person to be held accountable for libel and false accusations, it is necessary to obtain significant evidence. According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, libel is classified as a criminal act of private prosecution. Those. Punishment under Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation can only be based on the fact of a petition received from the injured party.

Due to the absence of aggravating circumstances, an appeal to the magistrate’s court and a statement of claim must be accompanied by the collection of the following documentation:

A petition drawn up independently or with the help of a competent legal specialist;
Evidentiary documentation (witness statements, audio and video materials);
Petition for compensation for moral damage (at the request of the applicant);
Photocopies of materials from the parties to the court case, including witnesses.

If aggravating circumstances are still present, you need to contact the supervisory (prosecutor's office) or law enforcement (police) authority at the place of permanent registration. Upon filing a petition, a pre-investigation check is carried out, criminal proceedings are opened, which are then addressed to the appropriate court (magistrates' court).