Certain aspects of defamation in sports

Introduction. The paper highlights and analyzes the concept of defamation under general legislation and sports law, features of interpretation, consideration of disputes and bringing to sports disciplinary responsibility by sports justice bodies. The purpose of the paper is to determine the specifics of defamation disputes in sports and the consideration of these cases in the bodies of sports justice. Results. It has been established that sports regulations regulate the institution of defamation by directly or indirectly prohibiting it. Sports regulation can manifest itself both through the prohibition of defamation and through obligations to show respect to colleagues, to protect the dignity of people and not to participate in any form of harassment or persecution. In most cases, actual defamation in sports leads to prosecution for harming the reputation of the sport or sports organization. Consideration of this category of disputes is carried out by quasi-arbitration bodies, which are formed by sports federations. During the consideration of disputes by the bodies of sports justice, the question arises whether defamatory judgments are evaluative and whether it is possible to bring disciplinary responsibility for such statements. As a result of the study, it was established that the right to freely express one's views and beliefs does not allow defamatory statements. Also, free expression of one's thoughts can simultaneously be a violation of sports regulations. Conclusion. Defamation in sports is the dissemination of information that does not correspond to reality and degrades the honor, dignity, business reputation of a natural person, business reputation of a legal entity or sports in general. A person may be subject to sports disciplinary responsibility even in the absence of a statement from the injured person, in particular, if such behavior is qualified as behavior that harms the reputation of the sport or the federation.