Public Person And Media In The Lawsuits Over Reputation

When the dispute over the right of free speech and the right of private reputation of public persons happens, as a fact, the right of free speech is prior to the latter in the legal state. While in China, the jurisprudence law about public person is still in the stage of developing, at the same time, the lawsuits brought up by public persons becoming more and more. This article begins with the classification of the public persons, that mean, Social brilliance, public officials and the enterprises. And, the author illustrate the condition that when these three kinds of people are "public persons". Combination with the illustration of lawsuits, the article explains the reason why the collision between social brilliance and the media would happen, and, analyze the four-judicial-integrants of civil law in relation to media. In the next part of the article, the author would analyze the lawsuit between the public official and media. First of all, how to deal with the problem of the public official's private right to reputation and the right of free speech under public surveillance, then, the reason that weakening the public official's right to private reputation. After that, the author would explore the relation of these two, and analyze in which degree that the public official's right to private reputation will work. Finally, point out that the non-distinction of the citizens and public official in China is the critical jurisdictional fact that why the media always lose its lawsuit when encountering public persons in the court, especially public officials, and, point out the ways of solution. The last part of this article is about collision between the enterprises and media. In this article, the author accredit that the essences of the right of reputation of enterprise is its property right, illustrate the social responsibility statutory obligation of these enterprise. At last, analyze the jurisdictional dilemma which bothering media in China.