Conflict And Coordination Between The Freedom Of Network Speech And The Right Of Privacy

The right of free speech, for its intrinsic value of freedom, reason, equality and democracy, is considered to be an indispensable right in a democratic society. As the basic human right guaranteed by the constitution, right of free speech plays an important role in social civilization and progress. Compared with traditional media, the internet provides people with more relaxed and unconstrained environment, so everyone can express opinions anywhere in the space of network, without any illegal restraint and interference. With some new characteristics like openness, anonymity and real-time feedback, the internet can help freedom of speech play its positive effects in cultural communication and exchange, propagating fairness and justice, promoting democracy development, etc.; however, it can also result in overexpansion and abuse of such freedom, that will infringe upon the other citizen’s rights such as reputation, privacy, etc.. And thus, right conflicts will break out. Therefore, to respect and guarantee the intrinsic value of freedom of speech, the right of privacy must be protected accordingly. To achieve that goal, the content and margin of the right of free speech and privacy need to be defined clearly within the constitutional framework.With the development of the concept of privacy, right of privacy has been attached with unprecedented attention and protection, and many countries had written this right into the constitution as a basic citizens’ right. Privacy right is not only a negative right, its subject began to dominate and control in a positive way, meanwhile constant awakening of citizens’ awareness of privacy protection also becomes the realistic need to regulate freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is aimed at maintaining the rights of the citizens to "speak" but the purpose of privacy right focuses on safeguarding the secrets of citizens in their private life from the outside infringement. If the law focuses on protecting freedom of speech, unlawful infringement related to the right of privacy must be tolerated; but, if the law emphasizes more on the protection of privacy right, freedom of speech must be limited reasonably.Unlike other rights conflicts, in the face of the conflict between the freedom of speech and privacy right, it is difficult for us to express position immediately, because for freedom, two rights are indispensable. From the constitutional level, the conflict between two rights caused by overexpansion of freedom of speech also reflects the conflicts in the basic rights. Citizens’ right of free speech has become an important foundation for social democracy progress and the government’s limit of network speech should avoid damaging the normal flow and free access of information resource in the society. Privacy right is to maintain dignity of the individual and also to ensure the personal self-determination and control on affairs in the private sector. Therefore, to coordinate the conflicts between freedom of speech and privacy right should follow the corresponding principles, define the right ranking and choose a balanced protection path to regulate the conflict.