Legal Protection against Defamation of the Reputation of Public Legal Entities in the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

The article analyzes a number of legal norms of the People’s Republic of China that determine the ability of public legal entities to protect their reputation from defamation (the dissemination of false and defamatory information). The object of the study was the phenomenon of social relations in China, with examples of their legislative regulation in cases of defamation; the procedure for resolving situations related to the dissemination of information that constitutes a controversial defamatory presentation of facts or opinions that negatively affect the reputation of public legal entities; the procedural issues that public legal entities affected by defamation face; and the procedures for initiating legal protection of their violated intangible benefits and rights from defamation.

It is concluded that, based on the equality of rights under Chinese law compared to other legal entities, public legal entities in China, along with other affected legal entities, have equal opportunities to use the methods of protecting their reputation from defamation provided for by the legislation of the People’s Republic of China, even in the context of the right to freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China.