Lawyer Ahlam Ahmad Dadu told "Dama": Syrian legislation punishes electronic defamation with imprisonment and a fine and allows the injured to request compensation.
Details:
Lawyer Ahlam Ahmed Dado said in an interview with the Dumma news network that the Syrian legislation, especially the penal law and the law for the prevention of cybercrimes, deals with acts related to the spread of false news and damage to reputation through legal provisions that change according to the nature of the act and the means of its execution.
Dadua explained that the publication of false accusations aimed at undermining the honor, reputation or social status of people falls within the scope of defamation, defamation and contempt crimes according to the Penal Code, or as part of information crimes when they are committed online and by electronic means, noting that the speed of digital circulation increases the nature of legal treatment and affects the damage.
The lawyer explained that the occurrence of a defamation offense requires the existence of three basic elements: the attribution of a specific fact or the publication of a false claim that harms honor and reputation, publication through the transmission of the claim to the public or others, and the presence of criminal intent represented by the intention to harm the reputation and harm the reputation.
Dadua emphasized the need to distinguish between freedom of expression and legitimate criticism aimed at highlighting public mistakes and evaluating public performance objectively without defamation, and between defamation based on false accusations and personal attacks, and explained that the mere discomfort of a person from criticism is not enough to consider it defamation.
I explained that the legal responsibility varies according to the means of publication; Advertising through electronic platforms is subject to the law for the prevention of cybercrimes with penalties that include imprisonment and fines, while advertising in traditional media is subject to the provisions governing work in the media, while oral distribution is in the nature of verbal slander or defamation under different conditions of proof and penalties.
She stated that proving defamation before the legal system requires documenting the content through screenshots, electronic links, recordings and testimonies, in addition to technical expertise to determine the source of the publication in the case of using fake accounts, in addition to documenting moral damages, such as mental, social and material harm, such as loss of work or interference with the matter.