Abstract

In its judgment of 8 February 2014 (V CSK 361/13) the Supreme Court rightly assumed that in the light of civil law the possibility of disgracing another person in their absence is limited exclusively to cases of insulting a person in public or with an intention that it reached that person. In other cases, even if an abusive statement reached the person concerned, it will be done by someone else; then, at most, an issue of disgrace by that “someone else” may arise. Expounding on the comments of the Supreme Court it should be added that it is not possible to disgrace a third person in a private conversation the contents of which are to remain confidential. The same refers to any correspondence. An intercepted note, e-mail, recording of a conversation may not underlie claims for infringement of personal rights. It should be stressed that recording and filming without the consent of the persons whose image and voice are taped is – as a matter of principle – unlawful. This concerns in particular private conversations whose contents were not meant to be publicly available.