Defence of non-property rights. Press article. Definition of privacy. Free exercise of the civil rights by a magistrate, by reference to the concept „information of general interest”

DREPT CIVIL ŞI DREPT PROCESUAL CIVIL

Abstract

The right to privacy, as a fundamental human right, shall be protected by the rules of the Constitution and of the international conventions which Romania is a party to. The literature has shown that there is a consensus in considering that a legislative framework which should ensure the protection of the personality needs to be created. This becomes an imperative of the modern life, especially since the protection of the personality rights is often in collision with the press freedom and with the right to information of public opinion. Under those circumstances in which the prejudice of non-property rights is made by publication of a press article, even in the online press, the existence of tort should be examined by reference to Article 10 of the ECHR, respectively whether we are in the presence of a press offense or the action of the individual summoned to court is protected by the right to freedom of expression. Courts should establish the existence of a fair balance between the general and particular interest, between the right to freedom of expression and privacy. The defence measures of property rights, expressly enshrined by the Civil Code, may only be ordered by the court insofar as proof is furnished that the conditions of tort liability are cumulatively fulfilled: the existence of tort, the existence of a prejudice, the culpability and existence of a causality relationship between tort and prejudice.