ABSTRACT Should criminal defamation be abolished, worldwide? The laws and approaches in two common-law jurisdictions – England & Wales, and South Africa – highlight some issues which must be urgently addressed in answering this question. First, the concept of reputation, which is at the heart of defamation. Judges, NGOs and others continue to make a mistake, highlighted since at least the 1980s; a basic failure to analyse this concept in sufficient depth. Second, there remains a tendency, amongst those arguing for abolition, to (inaccurately) proffer freedom of expression as a ‘trump card’ in these arguments. Only by addressing these issues will the abolition of criminal defamation proceed at an appropriate pace, hand-in-hand with the ‘democratisation’ of societies. Failure to do so could not only slow the pace of abolition, but even cause increased use of criminal defamation and an inappropriate (and potentially anti-democratic) resurgence of reputation as ‘honour’.

中文翻译：

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刑事诽谤和“荣誉”声誉：跨司法管辖区的角度

摘要是否应在世界范围内废除刑事诽谤？两个英美法系国家（英格兰和威尔士以及南非）的法律和方法都强调了一些在回答这个问题时必须紧急解决的问题。首先，声誉的概念是诽谤的核心。至少从1980年代开始，法官，非政府组织和其他组织继续犯错。根本无法深入分析此概念。其次，在那些主张废除死刑的人中，在这些论点中仍然存在着（不准确地）将言论自由作为“王牌”的趋势。只有解决这些问题，废除刑事诽谤才能与社会的“民主化”同时进行。不这样做不仅会减慢废除速度，