思想市场视野下诽谤问题研究

Research on Defamation in the Sight of Marketplace of Ideas

思想市场是一个"思想产品"可以自由平等竞争的言论市场。在理想的思想市场中,言论的真假、对错可以比较容易地分辨出来,诽谤言论也难以长久生存。但是,在现实的思想市场中,主体的信息发布能力是不平等的,不同能量主体之间的言论难以相互对抗。思想市场主体可以分为:普通公民、公众人物、公众机构、新闻媒体。在对思想市场中不同主体之间的诽谤进行认定时,应当考虑不同主体的言论强弱或社会职能,采取不同的方式和标准。在思想市场的观念下,我国对于诽谤可以适当放松刑法规制,而主要由民事的私法途径来处理。我国民事法律在规制诽谤时还可以将主体作出区分,并且对不同的主体作出不同的规定,以平衡保护思想市场的言论自由和公民的名誉权。

Marketplace of ideas is a speech market where products of thought are allowed to compete with each other freely and equally.In an idealized marketplace of ideas,it is easy to distinguish whether a speech is true or false and slanderous speeches are difficult to survive permanently.However,in the realistic marketplace of ideas,subjects＇ abilities to publish information are imbalanced.The speeches of different subjects who have different abilities can not confront with each other.The subjects in the marketplace can be divided into four parts：ordinary citizens、public figures、public organizations and news media.When we identify whether a subject＇s speech about another is defamation,we should differentiate the power of different subjects＇ speeches and their different social responsibility,and then adopt different methods and standards.For the concept of marketplace of ideas,our country could release the punishment of defamations in criminal law appropriately and deal with defamations through civil law primarily.When civil law regulates defamations,it also can distinguish the subjects,and formulate different regulations aim at different subjects,in order to protect the freedom of speech in marketplace of ideas and citizens＇ right of reputation evenly.