On civil law mechanisms of protecting the Russian Federation from defamation

Introduction: in the era of the digital economy it is impossible to imagine today’s world without mass media, without the Internet, which greatly affect the surrounding reality. There are often cases when many phenomena of modern reality, the ideas of which are available in society, over time have received an interpretation that is fundamentally different from the original one. It is the mass media that plays a huge role in this, which, thanks to the achievements of the digital sphere, literally shape people’s consciousness and their way of thinking. The information sphere of public and state life is becoming open and vulnerable to various kinds of fake news and publications, which to a large extent makes it an environment “favorable” for abuse and the commission of offenses. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the expediency of introducing into the legislation such concepts as “reputation” and “defamation” in relation to the Russian Federation as a subject of civil law relations, based on repeatedly recurring situations involving the dissemination of defamatory information (defamation) towards it, as well as ensuring that in the conditions of rapid development of the digitalization and digital technologies, Russia could protect such a special kind of intangible good as “reputation”. Methods: the methodological framework for the study includes the theoretical, comparative legal methods, the method of analysis and synthesis. Results: it has been established that currently the issues of ownership of intangible goods and personal non-property rights to them, as well as the participation of the state in personal non-property legal relations are not regulated bylaw. Considering the provision of Part 1 of Art. 125 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation which explicitly recognizes but does not clearly specify the personal non-property rights of the state, the study of the participation of the Russian Federation in personal non-property relations as an equal party to civil law relations is relevant. In addition, the current situation and the state of affairs in these public relations relating to personal non-property rights does not allow talking about the equality in the position of the state in comparison with other parties to civil law relations in cases of defamation, stated in Part 1 of Article 124 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The existing legislation does not provide a real opportunity to protect the intangible good of the state from defamation, such as reputation, the rights to which have been violated. Conclusions: to prevent negative consequences for Russia that may arise as a result of frequent cases of defamation, it is necessary to ensure the civil protection of Russia’s reputation from defamation. It is necessary to take a set of measures: firstly, to legislatively define the term “defamation”, to enshrine in the law that Russia as an independent party to civil law relations can be a subject of defamation on an equal basis with citizens and legal entities, and also to define the concept of “reputation” applicable to the Russian Federation.