Comparison between Different Countries

HK
The law of defamation is governed by the common law, which is modified and clarified to some extent by the Defamation Ordinance (DO). Generally, the elements of proof for a plaintiff to succeed in an action for defamation under the common law is more or less the same as other countries like the US and UK. While talking about the overall approach in operating the defamation laws in Hong Kong, it seems to us that its approach tend to be more like that of UK. That can be explained by the facts that the legal framework, not merely the defamation law, has been established from the UK basis, and since 1 July 1997 when Hong Kong was reverted from the UK to Chinese sovereignty, no significant change in terms of its approach was seen.

In light of the decisions and the considerations made to the very few HK cyberlibel cases by the court of Hong Kong, e.g. Investasia Ltd. & Another v. Kodansha Co. Ltd. & Another, and the lack of case law on Internet defamation in H, we can be convinced that the rulings and the future development of HK in the context of defamation will be likely influenced by other jurisdictions, e.g. the UK.

China
In comparison, China has less comprehensive regulations on defamation, especially in lack of concrete conceptual support. Article 38 of the 1982 Constitution states that the personal dignity of citizens is inviolable and any insult, libel, false charge or frame-up directed against citizens by any means is prohibited (PRC, 1982). However, the standard is relatively unclear and the balance of freedom is speech is not carefully dealt with. There is no specifications bout how the law defines the defamation concerning commentaries and opinion.

According to explanation of the Highest People's Court in 1993, the court is the final gatekeeper on how to decide whether an article is defamatory and the crucial factor in consideration is whether the content of the article is "true". This standard is applicable to both online or offline media. The problem is that it is difficult and complicated to prove whether a comment or opinion is "true" or "untrue". A more fine tuned specification to follow is needed.