Defamation, also known as slander, is a crime in the Penal Code. Article 212 of the Penal Code protects the interests of individuals whose reputations are damaged by the perpetrator’s false statements about those they inflicted. Defamation should not be confused with the protection of personal rights in the form of external honor, which, although it serves a similar function, is an institution of civil law, nor with the crime of insult, regulated in Article 216 of the Penal Code and protecting the personal dignity of the injured party, i.e., their internal honor. Let’s take a look at the provisions of the Penal Code concerning defamation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Article 212 of the Penal Code<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a7 1. Anyone who accuses another person, group of persons, institution, legal person, or organizational unit without legal personality of conduct or characteristics that may degrade them in public opinion or expose them to the loss of trust necessary for a given position, profession, or type of activity shall be subject to a fine or restriction of liberty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crime of defamation\/slander therefore occurs only when the words of the slanderer reach third parties, causing moral harm to the injured party in the public sphere, not merely an offense to their personal feelings. The injured party must prove this fact in court for the accused to be convicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A good example of defamation is, therefore, presenting false information about the services provided by the injured party, as this discourages the injured party’s potential clients, thus fulfilling the criterion of exposing them to the loss of trust necessary for a given position, profession, or type of activity. The perpetrator’s dissemination of truthful information may also qualify as defamation, but pursuant to Article 213 \u00a7 1 of the Penal Code, this does not apply to allegations made in a non-public setting, nor to allegations concerning the conduct of a person holding a public office or defending a legitimate public interest, as provided for in Article 213 \u00a7 2 of the Penal Code, which serves as a counter-example to „permissible criticism.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defamation through the Media<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Article 212 of the Penal Code<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a7 2. If the perpetrator commits the act specified in \u00a7 1 through the media,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
they shall be subject to a fine, restriction of liberty, or imprisonment for up to one year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This provision expands the scope of penalties applicable to defamation in situations where the slanderer commits the offense using the media. Because the slander then reaches a larger number of people and has a significantly greater impact on the victim’s image, the slanderer may be imprisoned. It is worth emphasizing that the perpetrator of defamation of the injured party in this way cannot invoke the protection of Article 213 \u00a7 1 of the Penal Code, as a defamatory accusation made through the media is always public (see J. Raglewski [in:] Penal Code. Special Part. Volume II. Part II. Commentary on Articles 212-277d, eds. W. Wr\u00f3bel, A. Zoll, Warsaw 2017, Article 213.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Private Prosecution \u2013 A Special Type of Prosecution Applicable to Defamation<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Art. 212 of the Penal Code<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a7 4. Prosecution of the offense specified in \u00a7 1 or 2 shall be by private accusation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defamation is a privately prosecuted offense, meaning that in order to initiate criminal proceedings against the perpetrator, a private indictment must be filed with the court. Law enforcement agencies (the police) may generally participate in these proceedings only as authorities securing evidence for the Court (pursuant to Article 488 \u00a7\u00a7 1-2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). However, pursuant to Article 60 \u00a7\u00a7 1-3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a prosecutor may initiate such proceedings or join proceedings already initiated as a public prosecutor only when required by the rule of law or the public interest. In such a case, the injured party who previously filed a private prosecution exercises the rights of an auxiliary prosecutor. If the prosecutor who joined the proceedings subsequently withdraws the charge, the injured party reverts to the rights of a private prosecutor in further proceedings. If the injured party did not file an indictment under these circumstances, they may file a private indictment within the final deadline of 14 days from the date of notification by the court of the prosecutor’s withdrawal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Defamation, also known as slander, is a crime in the Penal Code. Article 212 of the Penal Code protects the interests of individuals whose reputations are damaged by the perpetrator’s false statements about those they inflicted. Defamation should not be confused with the protection of personal rights in the form of external honor, which, although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"wp-custom-template-pojedynczy-wpis-en","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[237],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karne.pl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}