La diffamation sur Internet

The internet has revolutionised the world in which we live. Given a computer and an internet connection, all of us can share our opinions and thoughts with the rest of the world without any intermediaries. We can create our own websites, send emails, and participate in newsgroups and chat rooms. The internet has become the very means whereby freedom of expression - a right so dear to our heart and democracies - can truly and democratically be realised.

However, absolute freedom of expression is sometimes regarded as undesirable because it has the potential to restrict other peoples' liberties by inflicting upon them direct or indirect harm. Hence the existence of censorship and consequent laws regulating hate speech, pornography, defamation etc. The law on defamation, on which this assignment will focus, aims at finding a proper balance between the right to freedom of expression and the protection of the individual. This essay will critically discuss the legal control of defamation on the internet, and consider whether less control on the web would be more desirable.