Regulating Speech: The Defamation of Public Figures in Europe

András Koltay, Peter Pazmany Catholic University and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, has published The Regulation of the Defamation of Public Figures in Europe, with Special Emphasis on the Hungarian Legal System in Media Freedom and Regulation in the new Media World (A. Koltay, ed., Budapest, Wolters Kluwer, 2014 (Forthcoming)). Here is the abstract.

This study presents the international background of the defamation of public figures. Then it provides a brief overview of the solutions applied in specific European countries, broken down by the most important problems. Later sections take a closer look at the Hungarian regulations and the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court (CC) and ordinary courts, and examine the Strasbourg cases relating to Hungary, but with lessons for those outside the country too.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.