Article 153 of the Civil Code establishes a special civil legal method for protecting the honor, dignity and business reputation of a citizen and the business reputation of a legal entity. The right to a share, dignity and business reputation is the right to self-esteem and a socially significant assessment of the moral, business and other traits and properties of a subject of civil law, on which their position in society depends.

The concept of honor and dignity is not disclosed in legislation. The literature has developed the following definitions:

Honor is a reflection of a person’s qualities in the public consciousness, accompanied by a positive assessment of society; social assessment of moral and other personality qualities.

Dignity is a reflection of his qualities in one’s own consciousness, accompanied by a positive assessment of a person; self-esteem of an individual, his personal qualities, abilities, worldview, duty accomplished and his social significance.

The business reputation of a citizen who is not an individual entrepreneur is understood as the public assessment acquired by a citizen of his business and professional qualities when he performs his labor, official and public duties.

The business reputation of a legal entity and individual entrepreneur is understood as an assessment of their economic (economic) activities as participants in economic (economic) legal relations with other participants in property turnover and citizens who are not such (clause 6 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus dated December 23, 1999 No. 15 “On the practice of courts considering civil cases on the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation”).

According to paragraph 1 of Article 153 of the Civil Code, a citizen has the right to demand in court a refutation of information discrediting his honor, dignity or business reputation, unless the person who disseminated such information proves that it is true.

Therefore, for the right to defense to arise, three conditions must be present:

a) information must be disseminated;

b) the information must be defamatory;

c) the information must not correspond to reality.

What is meant by each of these conditions is explained in the relevant Resolutions of the Plenums of the Supreme Court

and the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus.

Responsibility for the dissemination of such information occurs regardless of the guilt of the person who disseminated it.

The main way to protect honor, dignity and business reputation is to refute defamatory information.

The authorized subject (plaintiff) for the requirements for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation is the person about whom defamatory information has been disseminated. Judicial practice proceeds from the fact that such demands can also be made by the relatives of this person if the specified information directly or indirectly discredits their honor and dignity (clause 10 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of December 23, 1999 No. 15).

The obligated subject (defendant) under claims for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation is the person who disseminated the defamatory information. For demands to refute information disseminated through the media (published in the press, reported on radio, television), both the author himself and the media body (for example, the editorial office of a newspaper, magazine, news agency, publishing house) are involved as defendants. . When such information is published (or disseminated in any other way) without indicating the name of the author (for example, in an editorial article), the relevant mass media body is considered the defendant. If the information was reproduced by him from official reports, speeches broadcast, or received from news agencies, then in relation to Article 63 of the Code of Civil Procedure and, accordingly, Article 41 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the body or person who served as the source of such information should also be involved as defendants. It is they who have the responsibility to prove that the information disseminated is true.

The Civil Code does not contain a general list of ways to refute information that discredits a person. It indicates only two situations: a) if information is disseminated in the media, it must be refuted in the same media; b) if the information is contained in a document emanating from the organization, such a document is subject to replacement or withdrawal. The procedure for refutation in other cases is established by the court. Since the essence of civil legal protection of honor, dignity and business reputation is the rehabilitation and restoration of a person’s good name, the method of refutation must be chosen in such a way that it becomes known to all persons among whom the defamatory information was disseminated.

When determining the method of refutation, the court, in accordance with Article 37 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On the Press and Other Mass Media,” may oblige the editorial office (publisher) to publish a refutation in a special section or in the same place on the page as the refuted message or material, in the same volume and in the same font.

On radio and television, a refutation must be broadcast at the same time of day and in the same program as the messages or material being refuted.

1) in the media published

(broadcast) at least once a week, no later than ten days from the date of receipt of the request for a refutation or its text;

2) in other media - in the next issue.

Editing by a mass media body of the text of the decision or commentary on it, which in content challenges the decision, is not allowed (clause 16 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of December 23, 1999 No. 15).

By virtue of clause 5 of Article 153 of the Civil Code, a citizen in respect of whom information discrediting his honor, dignity or business reputation has been disseminated, has the right, along with a demand to refute such information, to demand compensation for moral damage.

In accordance with clause 3 of Article 969 of the Civil Code, compensation for moral damage caused by the dissemination of information discrediting the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen is carried out regardless of the guilt of the perpetrator of harm in monetary form (clause 1 of Article 970 of the Civil Code).

Citizens, entrepreneurs and legal entities have the right to defend their honor or business reputation only in court. The injured party should not provide justifying arguments. However, she must show that the information discredits her good name and is being disseminated by a specific person/company. The detailed procedure is described in the article.

The legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide specific definitions of any of these concepts. However, in practice it is generally accepted that:

1. Honor- this is a public assessment of a particular person, a description of his personality traits, behavior, character traits, and ideological attitudes.
2. Dignity is a person’s self-assessment of these same qualities. At the same time, dignity is recognized by both society and the state.
3. Business reputation is an assessment by society of a person’s professional qualities, his knowledge and skills as an employee.

The concept of business reputation applies equally to both individual citizens and companies and individual entrepreneurs. It is assumed that a legal entity can only have a business reputation, and individuals have both business and personal reputation. As for honor and dignity, they can only characterize a specific person, and not an organization.

Thus, the listed concepts describe the spiritual and moral characteristics of people and indicators of the professionalism of the company. Together they form spiritual rights, which do not directly relate to material ones, but have many connections with them.

Expert opinion

Sobolev Dmitry

For example, a person has the right to a good name. If this norm is violated, he risks encountering problems in the field of professional development and relationships with creditors. This in the future worsens his financial situation, i.e. already violates material rights.

The legislative framework

Every citizen of the Russian Federation has the right to protect his own honor, dignity and good name, which is guaranteed by the Constitution.

Other legislative acts specify the methods and procedures for protecting honor.

The Civil Code defines the described concepts as intangible benefits of a person, which he acquires by right of birth. That is, “by default” every person and company has a good name and is considered “good” unless otherwise proven. The described intangible benefits cannot be alienated and are not inherited or sold in any other way. However, they can be violated in various ways by individuals, entrepreneurs or companies.

What may be the harm to honor, dignity and business reputation?

Intangible (spiritual) rights can only suffer intangible damage, which, however, does not exclude material and financial consequences. Damage to a person’s honor or the reputation of a company or individual entrepreneur is that an interested person disseminates defamatory information about him, i.e. knowingly false information of a negative nature.

Such information is transmitted to a large circle of people, which forms a negative perception of a person or company in society, a certain group, in front of loved ones, clients, in the region or state as a whole. Moreover, such data is disseminated specifically in the media (TV, newspapers, Internet, etc.).

As a result, the injured party receives or risks receiving both moral and material damage:

• job loss;
• detention;
• loss of reputation;
• breaking ties with business partners;
• damage to a trademark, brand;
• decrease in sales volume and much more.

When determining the harm caused by defamatory information, generally accepted legal principles apply:

1. Presumption of good faith.
2. Presumption of innocence.

These principles mean that every person and every company is not required to prove the good name and reputation that inherently belongs to them. When certain negative information is received, only the party that disseminated such information is obliged to prove its veracity. The subject himself is not obliged to justify himself and prove the falsity of the received data, although he has the right to do this at his own discretion.

Expert opinion

Sobolev Dmitry

Administrative offenses lawyer, site expert

The buyer insists that the store sells expired products. He disseminated the data through publication in a local newspaper. In this case, the store is not required to prove that the information is false. At the same time, the company has the right to go to court and demand a refutation of this information.

Methods and procedure for protecting honor and business reputation: sample statement of claim

The Civil Code provides for judicial restoration of violated rights by:

• refuting false information in the same way as it was originally disseminated;
• (for private individuals only).

Both measures can be applied both jointly and separately - the final decision remains with the court. Thus, the only way to restore your honor or reputation is to go to court with a demand to refute disseminated negative information. The parties can reach the same agreement in pre-trial proceedings by concluding a settlement agreement, which has full legal force.

Protection is provided in courts of general jurisdiction (for citizens) and in arbitration courts (for individual entrepreneurs and legal entities). As a plaintiff Can be either a private citizen or a representative of a company, organization, community or entrepreneur. It is important to understand that a person has the right to protect his good name both during life and after death. Therefore, the heirs of deceased citizens whose good name has been damaged (including after death) can also apply to the court.

As a defendant speakers:

• the authors themselves, who compiled false materials, denunciations, photos, videos, etc.;
• persons disseminating this information (for example, citizens or newspapers, owners of websites and other media).

The statement of claim has a standard structure and contains the following sections:

1. “Hat” with the name of the court, full name, address, contact information of the plaintiff and defendant.
2. Detailed description of the situation.
3. The claims are refutation of false information and compensation for moral damage.
4. Applications.
5. Date, signature, signature transcript.

When drawing up an application, you can use this sample as a guide.

It is important to understand that the plaintiff can also demand restoration of his good name in cases where it is impossible to identify the author of false rumors due to objective reasons (or this author has died, gone missing, etc.). In this case, the party is also not obliged to prove its good faith, i.e. there is no need to provide documents that confirm its positive business reputation.

The statute of limitations for such cases is 3 years. If the plaintiff demands compensation for damages in connection with the publication of false information in the media, the statute of limitations is 1 year. This period begins from the moment when the victim learned about the dissemination of defamatory information or should have known about it. If there are good reasons (illness, other emergency circumstances), the deadlines can be restored: only the court has the right to make an appropriate decision.

Review of judicial practice: 10 conclusions

Judicial practice in such cases is quite diverse. Statistics show that claims on 5,000 claims from citizens and 800 claims from individual entrepreneurs and legal entities are heard annually. In doing so, judges strive to be guided by the explanations of the highest authority.

1. When resolving disagreements, it is necessary to pay attention not only to Russian legislation, but also to decisions of the European Court and other international documents.
2. Claims should also be considered in cases where the author cannot be identified (anonymous notes, negative information on the Internet, etc.).
3. If an entrepreneur or company is a participant in the process, but the case is not related to economic activity, it is considered in courts of general jurisdiction.
4. A preliminary requirement for the author to refute false data is not necessary - each person has the right to immediately go to court.
5. If defamatory information is disseminated by an employee of a company (in connection with the performance of his professional duties), then this company as a legal entity will be the defendant. In this case, the employee himself can act as a third party, provided that he has no personal interest in the matter.
6. If the actions of the author of false information contain signs of a crime, the victim may demand the initiation of a criminal case. Failure to initiate proceedings does not deprive him of the right to appeal to a civil court.
7. The court must be convinced that the information was disseminated by a specific person. The injured party must prove this fact. She must also prove that this information is defamatory.
8. False information is information whose existence has not been proven. These cannot include information contained in court documents (rulings, decisions, sentences).
9. Information that is defamatory is not only about a person’s violation of the law, but also about his commission of an unethical, immoral act that is not formally prohibited by law.
10. In some cases, the media are exempt from liability for disseminating such data. All these cases are prescribed in the relevant law, and their list is exhaustive.

• What is honor, dignity and business reputation.
• How does defense work in court?
• What is considered to be information that discredits reputation?
• How the court hearing is carried out.

There are situations when honor, dignity and business reputation identity or company is encroached upon by other individuals or legal entities. Every citizen of the Russian Federation has a legal right to protection. If you need to exercise this right, or just want to keep up to date with the topic, read this material.

Honor, dignity, business reputation - wording and meanings

The terms “honour”, “dignity” and “business reputation” are difficult to define clearly. This is the problem in the defense process - the lack of awareness of a person or legal entity prevents them from correctly defending their own position. To prevent this from happening, let's understand the concepts.

Honor

Honor refers to moral, ethical and social assessment personality traits. These qualities are nobility, justice, truthfulness, dignity and others. The culture of some peoples places the concept of honor above human life. For example, for the Japanese samurai, the preferred option was to accept death rather than lose his honor and dignity in the eyes of others.

Previously, honor was closely related to a person’s ability to behave correctly in society. This is where etiquette, including business etiquette, originates. Today, honor also relies on the internal qualities of a particular person. Honor is also closely related to honesty. A person who easily deceives himself or others cannot be characterized as a person of high honor.

Dignity

Dignity is characterized as a person's subjective assessment of his worth as an independent person. In some sources, dignity is understood as a complex of properties and characteristics of a person that speak of him as a structure possessing high spiritual and moral qualities. At the same time, dignity is a person’s ability to recognize the presence of such personality traits in himself.

According to the laws of civil law, dignity is present in every person from birth, regardless of his social status, position, nationality, religion and a number of other characteristics. The right to have dignity cannot be transferred or taken away from a person. It is also impossible to refuse it on a voluntary basis. Humiliation of personal dignity on the territory of the Russian Federation is punishable by law.

Business reputation

Much more can be said about business reputation than about honor and dignity, which are abstract and intangible concepts. Business reputation is defined as an intangible type of benefit that evaluates the activities and behavior of a person solely from the standpoint of his business qualities. This benefit is inherent not only to a person, but also to a legal entity. Depending on the subject, reputation is divided into 2 types:

• Business reputation of a citizen. A set of personal and professional qualities that are closely related to the position a person holds. From the standpoint of business reputation, a person is assessed as a professional. Reputation consists of how he approaches the performance of his business duties, how he interacts with clients or superiors, as well as other factors.
• Business reputation of the organization. The difference between a company's selling price and its equity. In a broader sense, a company’s business reputation is its attitude towards partners and clients, methods of conducting marketing work, fairness in setting prices, and the quality of goods and services offered. All this creates the reputation of a legal entity.

Business reputation can be positive or negative. The assessment can be given on the basis of both quantitative and qualitative indicators. In the first case, the value of all intangible assets of a company or individual is assessed. The most common method Goodwill. It provides an accurate assessment of the quantitative goodwill of an organization.

How to protect honor, dignity and business reputation in court

Victims should take into account the fact that today the current legislation of the Russian Federation does not provide for a ban on defamation. This term refers to the publication in the public domain of truthful information that has a depressing effect on the moral state of the person to whom this information is applied. It will be impossible to achieve a refutation in this case.

Thanks to this article from CEO magazine, you will learn how to behave if someone is trying to harm your reputation.

Who can apply to court for protection of honor

Both citizens and companies have the right to honor, dignity and business reputation and their protection. Individuals and legal entities who believe that their personal and business qualities have been insulted or otherwise violated can contact the judicial authority. If a citizen has not reached the age of majority, his interests in the court process must be represented by a trusted person.

Many people believe that litigation in a case to protect dignity and honor is a big waste of time, money and effort. In fact, a tarnished reputation is worth more than legal costs and the time spent proving your case. If you are not sure that you can protect your own moral qualities, contact experienced lawyer.

Information discrediting honor, dignity and business reputation

You should go to court for justice only if there is publication of information that discredits the reputation of the victim. Defamatory information has obvious signs:

• Information describes the actions or behavior of a specific citizen or legal entity. For example, this could be an accusation of receiving a bribe by an official or of committing an administrative or criminal crime, naturally without any evidence.
• Information provides a specific and objective assessment of the actions of a person - a company or an ordinary person. In this case, a condition must be met - the information not only negatively affects a person’s reputation as a professional or individual, but at the same time it is also unreliable.
• The information applies to any area of ​​the company’s work or a person’s life.. Thus, the violator can disclose details of both the work activity and private life of the citizen. In the second case, actions may also fall under the article on violation of the right to privacy.

Information discrediting reputation and honor can describe not only unreliable situations, but also incorrectly interpret existing ones in such a way that the morale and dignity of the victim are damaged. Information is divided into statements and value judgments. The difference between the latter is that it is impossible to check whether they correspond to reality.

Popular reasons for going to court

There are many ways to discredit honor, dignity, and also worsen the business reputation of a person or legal entity. Judicial practice shows that most often people go to court after accusations:

• in illegal receipt of funds;
• in the announcement of racist and nationalist speeches;
• in bad faith, incl. professional;
• in administrative and criminal crimes;
• in deception, slander, and also in breach of duty.

You can also go to court to refute unlawful accusations and statements in cases where the victim is sure that his honor, dignity and business reputation have come under attack. If the truthfulness of the accusations is not established during the trial, they will automatically be declared unlawful, and the defendant will be obliged to correct the situation.

Publication of information discrediting reputation, honor or dignity is not legally considered distribution and cannot be considered in court. In order to call the violator to account, defamatory information must be publicly announced in the media or to a limited circle of people in any other way.

The right to protect business reputation in court - how it is exercised

Consideration of cases of information discrediting honor, dignity and business reputation is carried out by the court in accordance with the general procedure. A person who believes that his moral or professional qualities have been violated by others files a claim in court. During the meeting, both parties present arguments as evidence of their position. Based on this, the court makes its decision.

If the guilt of the person who published the defamatory information has been proven, the court announces a decision to immediately satisfy the claim of the victim. The format of the decision depends on how the rights of the victim were violated. For example, if negative information is published in a book, the court may force the offender to recall the entire batch of books.

Example

Two plaintiffs went to court, claiming that the offender, during the broadcast of one of the popular television programs, allowed unsubstantiated statements to be made that the plaintiffs were engaged in corruption. The plaintiffs demanded that the offender be brought to justice and compensated for the moral damage received.

At the beginning of the trial, the court granted the claim from both plaintiffs. The amount of moral damage was reduced by 5 times, which is a fairly common practice in Russian courts. Instead of the planned 2,500,000 rubles, 500,000 rubles were awarded in favor of each of the plaintiffs. Still, the amount is quite large, especially if you look at the statistics on such decisions.

Correct protection of honor and business reputation

Protecting honor and business reputation is a mandatory event for those individuals and companies who care about their own dignity. In Russia, every citizen and company can go to court in order to defend their innocence and demand that the person who humiliates the honor and dignity of their statements be refuted. What methods of protecting honor, dignity and business reputation should be used in case of need?

What nuances do you need to know about?

Statements that humiliate the honor, dignity and business reputation of the injured person must be refuted after a trial in the same ways as they were disseminated. This means that if insults or other information were published in the media, refutations should also be published there.

• Crimes against honor, dignity and business reputation are not subject to the statute of limitations. This means that any period of time can pass between the moment of the assault and the moment the victim goes to court. However, Russian legislation provides for some exceptions.
• Even if it is not possible to reliably identify the person who disseminated negative information about the victim, the situation can be corrected.
• If a person who has violated the honor, dignity and business reputation of the victim does not comply with the court decision within the time period specified by it, an administrative fine will be imposed on him. Its size is clearly stated in the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, and the money is credited to the Russian Federation. There are also cases of compensation for moral damage.
• Information that negatively affects the honor, dignity and business reputation of a citizen or legal entity may also be contained in the document.
• After a court decision is made, documents whose content is offensive to the victim must be deleted or recalled.
• If a citizen, whose honor, reputation and dignity has been violated, is not satisfied with the retraction of defamatory information from the media, he may demand moral compensation. To do this, you need to go to court with a corresponding application. However, it must be taken into account that the court often underestimates the actual amount of moral compensation by 3-4 times.

There are cases when it is impossible to convey a refutation of information discrediting the honor of the victim; you can demand the removal of unlawful information, as well as stop its dissemination.

The victim may also exercise the right to publish his response as a refutation.

We can conclude that the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation of citizens in the Russian Federation takes the form of a refutation of statements discrediting these concepts, as well as compensation for moral harm. There is no provision for criminal punishment; the maximum is a large fine. If the court orders the violator to compensate for moral damages, the defendant will have to spend money on this as well.

Compensation for moral damage as restoration of justice

Moral harm can be caused not only to a citizen, but also to an organization. A legal entity may also demand compensation for property or non-property moral damage, the infliction of which was affected by the derogation of the company’s business reputation. Compensation is awarded even if the guilt of the harm-doer was not discovered, since moral damage was caused anyway.

Conclusion

Protecting the honor and business reputation of a legal entity and a citizen is an activity that should be undertaken immediately after the publication of some defamatory information. Despite the fact that there is no statute of limitations for such cases. Do not be afraid to defend your own rights in court, and also read in more detail the article on the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation within the framework of the current legislation of Russia.

The institution of protection of honor and dignity is not new in Russian civil law. There are indications of it in both the Civil Code of the RSFSR (Article 7) and in the Fundamentals of Civil Legislation of the USSR and the Republics (Article 7). However, the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation is rightfully considered, along with compensation for moral damage, a milestone of new times.

The honor, dignity, and business reputation of a citizen collectively determine a “good name,” the inviolability of which is guaranteed by the Constitution (Article 23).

Art. 150 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation establishes that honor, dignity and business reputation are personal non-property benefits.

According to Art. 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, “a citizen in respect of whom information discrediting his honor, dignity or business reputation has been disseminated, has the right, along with a refutation of such information, to demand compensation for losses and moral damage caused by its dissemination.”

As follows from the above norms of civil law, there are several mandatory conditions for satisfying a claim for compensation for moral damage. Firstly, a claim can only be brought in connection with the dissemination of any information.

The peculiarity of the exercise of personal non-property rights is that the law does not determine the limits of the realization of intangible benefits by an authorized person, but establishes the boundaries of the invasion of outsiders into the personal sphere and, if these limits are violated, the use of compulsory measures to restore them is allowed.

Art. 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation establishes liability in the form of recovery of moral and material damage in cases of infringement on honor, dignity and business reputation. Civil protection of honor, dignity and business reputation has the following features:

The fact of violation of the right provided for in Art. 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation can be recognized only when there has been dissemination of information that does not correspond to reality, which relates to the plaintiff and is defamatory. The absence of at least one of these signs in the disseminated information indicates the absence of an offense under Art. 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Claims for the protection of personal non-property benefits are not subject to statute of limitations (i.e., they can be filed at any time after publication) (Article 208 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

The right to honor, dignity and business reputation is an absolute right due to the fact that the subjective right of the authorized person corresponds to the obligation of an indefinite circle of persons. The essence of this universal obligation lies in the subjective right of an individual, a work collective or an organization to the opportunity to enjoy deserved respect in society and to refrain obligated persons from encroaching on honor, dignity and business reputation. According to Art. 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a citizen (and in the case of protecting business reputation, a legal entity) has the right to demand in court a refutation of information discrediting his honor, dignity or business reputation, unless the person who disseminated such information proves that it is true.

It is noted that the refutation itself may consist of two parts. By satisfying the request for a refutation, the court recognizes the defamatory information as untrue, and therefore the court decision itself contains a refutation. Then the court assigns the duty of refutation to the defendant, during which the second type of refutation is implemented. A refutation is limited to judicial recognition of information as untrue in cases where the decision is not executed by the debtor or is made not in a claim, but in a special proceeding (clauses 4 and 6 of Article 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Refutation, therefore, is a special way of protecting these goods. It can be used under three conditions.

First, the information must be defamatory. The basis for assessing information as defamatory is not a subjective, but an objective sign.

Paragraph 2 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated August 18, 1992 No. 11 “On some issues that arise when courts consider cases on the protection of the honor and dignity of citizens, as well as the business reputation of citizens and legal entities” states that “they are defamatory. .. information that does not correspond to reality, containing allegations of a violation by a citizen or organization of current legislation or moral principles (about committing a dishonest act, improper behavior in the work collective, everyday life and other information discrediting production, economic and social activities, business reputation, etc. ), which belittle honor and dignity."

Practice notes that “freedom of opinion and belief does not give the right to disseminate defamatory and untrue information, including information about the personal life of a citizen.”

L. filed a lawsuit against P., the Kamchatka state television and radio company "Prichal" and the newspaper "AiF on Kamchatka" for the protection of honor and dignity, referring to P.'s public statement that the appointment of L. as deputy head of the administration of the Milkovsky district was due to the fact that that L. is supposedly the son of an alcoholic and thus became popular among the people. The regional court satisfied the claim, justifying the decision by the fact that, despite being enshrined in Art. 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the right to freedom of opinion and belief, such freedom does not give the right to disseminate defamatory and untrue information, including about the personal life of a citizen (the fact that L.’s father is an alcoholic is not included in the case materials, as is evidence the relationship between information of this kind and the growing popularity of L.). In addition, by virtue of Part 1 of Art. 24 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the dissemination of information about the private life of a person without his consent is not allowed (and such consent is not indicated in the case materials).

Secondly, information must be disseminated. Practice understands dissemination as “publication of such information in the press, broadcast on radio and television and video programs, demonstration in newsreels and other media, presentation in official characteristics, public speeches, statements addressed to officials, or communication in other including oral, to several or at least one person. The communication of such information to the person concerned cannot be considered its dissemination” (clause 2 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of August 18, 1992 No. 11). At the same time, certain information, even real information, constitutes a secret and cannot be disclosed.

In practice, the issue of the legality of publication was resolved. The city administration filed a lawsuit against the editorial office of the television company to declare the information made on air untrue and discrediting the business reputation, as well as for the defendant to make an official apology and refutation of the messages made. The information was that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic sent a letter to the head of local government, which recommended postponing the appointment of S. to the post of chairman of the economics committee. The arbitration court replaced the editorial office of the television company with the proper defendant (limited liability company) and refused to satisfy the claims. The appellate court left the decision unchanged. The cassation court confirmed the legality of the decision, pointing out that there was indeed an official letter, it was duly registered and was not secret. The television company did not provide any comments regarding the text of the letter. Freedom of information is limited only to the dissemination of information constituting a state secret. Therefore, the dissemination of such factual information is not illegal.

Thirdly, the information must not correspond to reality. In this case, the responsibility to prove the accuracy of the disseminated information lies with the defendant (clause 7 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of August 18, 1992 No. 1198.

Cases of recognition of information as untrue are quite frequent. At the same time, plaintiffs often dispute factual data.

Thus, a non-state cultural institution (NUK) filed a lawsuit on March 17, 2009 against the Office of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for the Kamchatka Territory for the protection of business reputation and the obligation of the defendant to refute the information discrediting the plaintiff about his understatement of income contained in the inspection report of the Federal Tax Service for the Kamchatka Territory. The court decision rejected the claim, since the court concluded that the plaintiff did not prove that the defendant had disseminated information discrediting his business reputation. By the decision of the appellate instance, the decision was canceled and the proceedings in the case were terminated due to the lack of jurisdiction of this dispute by the arbitration court, since the dispute about invalidating the information contained in the acts of documentary checks, which do not belong to the category of non-normative acts of state bodies, cannot be considered by the arbitration court .

The cassation court overturned the decision of the appellate instance, and upheld the decision of the court of first instance, citing the fact that, firstly, the plaintiff asks for such protection as is specified in Art. 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, and therefore the conclusions of the appellate court regarding jurisdiction are erroneous; secondly, the plaintiff raises the issue that his business reputation is affected by both the tax audit act and the newspaper article based on it. But the inspection report was drawn up as part of ongoing investigative actions in a criminal case, is the material of the criminal case and in itself cannot affect the business reputation of the plaintiff (does not fall under Article 152 of the Civil Code). The newspaper publication is based on a tax audit report, and therefore cannot be considered untrue.

Clause 2 Art. 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides for the procedure for refuting defamatory information published in the media: “If information discrediting the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen is disseminated in the media, it must be refuted in the same media.” This process is regulated in more detail by the Law of the Russian Federation “On the Mass Media”.

According to Part 2 of Art. 44 of the Law, a refutation in a periodical printed publication must be typed in the same font and placed under the heading “Refutation”, as a rule, in the same place on the page as the message or material being refuted. On radio and television, a refutation must be broadcast at the same time of day and, as a rule, in the same program as the message or material being refuted. The issue of the right to publish a response by a citizen in the event of publication of information that infringes on his rights and freedoms is resolved in a similar way (Part 3 of Article 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

If the court decision is not implemented, the court has the right to impose a fine on the violator, recovered in the amount and in the manner prescribed by procedural legislation, to the income of the Russian Federation. Payment of a fine does not relieve the offender from the obligation to perform the action prescribed by the court decision.

Refutation is not the only way to defend. A citizen in respect of whom information discrediting his honor, dignity or business reputation has been disseminated, has the right, along with a refutation of such information, to demand compensation for losses and moral damage caused by its dissemination.

If it is impossible to identify the person who disseminated information discrediting the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen, the person in respect of whom such information was disseminated has the right to apply to the court to declare the disseminated information untrue. Such a case is considered as a special proceeding in the absence of the defendant.

According to paragraph 1 of Art. 152 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, at the request of interested parties, protection of the honor and dignity of a citizen is allowed even after his death. Some authors argue that not including business reputation in this list “contradicts the concept of protecting the interests of the individual,” with which we cannot agree. It seems that such a measure of protection is applied not to the deceased, who is not a subject of law, but to his heirs or other interested parties. This is due to the fact that the public opinion that has developed about a person’s ancestors, as a rule, is transferred to the person himself - the descendant. The business reputation of an ancestor, being questioned, does not affect the professional assessment of the descendant, since such an assessment depends only on personal qualities, but not on the prevailing opinion. But the business reputation of the deceased can affect the honor and dignity of the descendant. That is, by law, the business reputation of the deceased is included in the scope of his honor and dignity, which are subject to protection, in fact relating to the honor and dignity of the person concerned.

In conclusion, we note that personal non-property rights in civil law represent an independent type of subjective rights, serve as a legal means of ensuring the personal (individual) sphere of a citizen from interference and require the use of civil legal instruments for their regulation.

The main feature of personal non-property rights is that their structure lacks one of the powers characteristic of other absolute rights. If the right of ownership presupposes the ability of the authorized person to exercise in the most comprehensive way the right to own, use and dispose of property, then this is not typical for personal non-property rights. Here, the authorized person exercises his personal non-property rights through his actions outside the framework of the law.

Article 152. Protection of honor, dignity and business reputation

1. A citizen has the right to demand in court a refutation of information discrediting his honor, dignity or business reputation, unless the person who disseminated such information proves that it is true. The refutation must be made in the same way in which information about the citizen was disseminated, or in another similar way.

At the request of interested parties, it is possible to protect the honor, dignity and business reputation of a citizen even after his death.

2. Information discrediting the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen and disseminated in the media must be refuted in the same media. A citizen in respect of whom the specified information has been disseminated in the media has the right to demand, along with a refutation, that his response also be published in the same media.

3. If information discrediting the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen is contained in a document emanating from an organization, such a document is subject to replacement or revocation.

4. In cases where information discrediting the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen has become widely known and, in connection with this, a refutation cannot be brought to public knowledge, the citizen has the right to demand the removal of the relevant information, as well as the suppression or prohibition of further dissemination of this information by seizure and destruction, without any compensation, of copies of material media containing the specified information made for the purpose of introducing into civil circulation, if without destroying such copies of material media, deleting the relevant information is impossible.

5. If information discrediting the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen turns out to be available on the Internet after its distribution, the citizen has the right to demand the removal of the relevant information, as well as a refutation of this information in a way that ensures that the refutation is communicated to Internet users.

6. The procedure for refuting information discrediting the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen in cases other than those specified in paragraphs 2 - 5 of this article is established by the court.

7. Application of penalties to the violator for failure to comply with a court decision does not relieve him of the obligation to perform the action prescribed by the court decision.

8. If it is impossible to identify the person who disseminated information discrediting the honor, dignity or business reputation of a citizen, the citizen in respect of whom such information was disseminated has the right to apply to the court to declare the disseminated information untrue.

9. A citizen in respect of whom information discrediting his honor, dignity or business reputation has been disseminated, along with a refutation of such information or publication of his response, has the right to demand compensation for losses and compensation for moral damage caused by the dissemination of such information.

10. The rules of paragraphs 1 - 9 of this article, with the exception of the provisions on compensation for moral damage, can also be applied by the court to cases of dissemination of any untrue information about a citizen, if such a citizen proves that the specified information does not correspond to reality. The limitation period for claims made in connection with the dissemination of the specified information in the media is one year from the date of publication of such information in the relevant media.

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