Protection of personal rights and public media

73 SUMMARY: PERSONALITY PROTECTION AND PUBLIC MEDIA This final thesis is focused on the collision of two crucial values of legal culture in democratic societies - the freedom of speech and personality protection. On one side there is the freedom of speech or freedom of expression as one of the most fundamental civil and political rights. This right can be defined as a right to receive and expand information. On the other side there is the personality protection which can be understood as an integral unity of moral, physical and social characteristic. The freedom of speech and the personality protection are considered to be of equal weight. It is impossible to give privileged position to either of them. It is often quite problematic to define limits of the freedom of expression in relation to the personality protection. There is no single resolution to be found in the Czech legislation. For this reason, a crucial role in resolving this issue is played by courts. When deciding these cases, courts always have to strive to balance these values such that they are kept in the appropriate proportionality to each other. The first part of this final thesis focuses on the concept of the protection of personality in general. It provides the reader with the main characteristics of the personality protection and it..