How to complain if you believe that you have been a victim of defamation?
If you believe that defamatory false, incomplete or misleading statements have been made public about you and if they affect your honour, dignity or privacy, or your reputation, there are several ways that you can protect your rights. A legal person may proceed in a similar manner if its reputation has been affected.
Complaint to the media
If the facts or opinions that you believe are defamatory or that harm your rights in other way are published in the press, in the news agency or through TV broadcasting, you have a right to ask that media to publish a correction within thirty days from the date of publication. You can also ask the press publisher and the news agency to publish your opinion on the matter, so-called reply (in Slovak odpoveď).
If a report in the press or in the news agency contains a factual information on public proceeding of a public authority against you and that proceeding has been terminated by a final decision, you have the right to request further notification of the final outcome of the proceedings.
In your complaint to the media, you should indicate which facts or information you consider defamatory along with presenting the real facts or true information, as well as the date and place of publication. The publisher or the broadcaster has to assess your complaint within eight days of the date he/she received it. If he/she agrees to retract the untrue facts or apologize for the defamatory opinions, it should be done in the same way that the information was published. If the broadcaster does not broadcast the correction at all, you have the right to apply to the court within 15 days of the expiry of the time limit, otherwise your right to correction will expire.
example If the information was initially printed on the first page of a newspaper in bold capital letters, the retraction should be published in the same typestyle and on the same page as it was originally printed.
The Slovak legal system does not regulate currently a similar obligation to publish a correction or reply in relation to all electronic media. The websites of press agencies and broadcasters via the internet are partially regulated, but no Slovak legislation stipulates these obligations to, e.g. operators of social networks, web portals or other forms of electronic media.
Civil claim
Regardless you have used the option to request a correction or a reply, and especially in cases where the law does not even regulate these options for a given type of media, you may bring a civil claim to the court against the author and disseminator of the defamatory expressions that harm your rights. You can also bring this claim if you have already asked the relevant media to retract the information that you believe is defamatory, but the editor has refused to do so.
The court may decide that you have right to adequate satisfaction (e.g. in the form of an excuse, correction, etc.) or to monetary compensation for non-pecuniary damage, if your dignity has been significantly reduced. It is also possible to file a civil claim where the defamatory expressions were not published in the media, but expressed in front of a considerable audience or otherwise distributed. The civil remedies which you can claim in a court depends on specific condition of particular case. Most often it includes request for:
- an apology
- the retraction of the untrue statements
- publication of true facts or the court judgment itself
- monetary compensation for non-pecuniary damage
- compensation of non-pecuniary or pecuniary loss
If you claim monetary compensation, you should state to the court why you are claiming the amount, or how the damage resulted from a defamatory or other damaging statement.
Criminal proceedings
In exceptional cases, you can request the police to initiate criminal proceedings for libel against the author or disseminator of defamatory expressions. The police can only open a criminal case for defamatory expressions that are:
- made deliberately
- contain false statements of fact
- expressed in public or made public through the press or other media
Defamatory expressions fall under criminal sanctions if they cause serious damage such as loss of job, damage of property, destruction of family relations like divorce or, if they are used with a specific motive. Specific motives include acting upon order, acting upon revenge, acting with the intention to cover up a crime, with a sexual motive or incitement to hatred and violence against a person or a group of persons because of their affiliation to a race, ethnicity, nation or religion.
Appeal
If the police reject your request to initiate criminal proceedings and you consider that this decision was not well-reasoned, you can appeal it to the supervising prosecutor in your case. You must submit an appeal in a form of a complaint within 3 days of the date you received the decision. The procedure and time-limits for the appeal must be indicated in the decision.
Additional civil claim
If the police initiate a criminal case and indict the accused, you may claim the monetary compensation from the accused during the criminal proceedings. However, if your claim for monetary compensation is not fully satisfied within the criminal proceedings, you may bring a separate civil claim.