In libel committed in the media, we are talking about the conflict between freedom of expression and right to honour and good name. Freedom of expression is one of the most important human rights. In accordance with Slovene legislation, we cannot talk about illegal act of libel, if proved that this conduct was not done with a purpose of contempt. In my Master's Thesis, we set out the distinction between juridical and linguistic view of libel, especially as the purpose of contempt. The last research in the field of linguistics related to the issue of libel on the territory of Slovenia was made in 2002, therefore, my goal in my Master's Thesis is to identify, with the help of linguistic-stylistic analysis, how the linguistic aspect of the libel indicates in selected court cases of Slovenian courts in the past fifteen years. In my Master's Thesis we set out four assumptions that we believe are important in determing whether a libel has been committed. The assumptions are the following: objective insult, subjective insult, subjective relation and the circumstances of the case. Based on the analysed cases we are finding out that the Slovenian courts tolerate interventions in personal rights of the individual and that they often leave the advantage to freedom of expression in this conflict of rights. However, they are not unified in order to determine when in the libel someone is unlawfully interfering in the right of another. We agree with the idea of the introduction of the linguistic expert, which would help the court in determining objective insult of a particular part of the text, as we find that the highest court in the country in particular sometimes incorrectly treat the indisputable linguistic facts or not take into account undisputed facts of the Slovenian language.
|
