Switzerland Defamation Laws: Civil, Criminal & Defences

In Switzerland, defamation is both a criminal offence and a civil wrong. The Swiss Criminal Code (StGB / CP) punishes defamation, wilful defamation, and insult in articles 173, 174, and 177, while the Civil Code (ZGB / CC) protects personality in articles 28 and following, allowing a person harmed to seek an injunction, a correction, and compensation.

Is defamation civil, criminal, or both in Switzerland?

It is both. Swiss law protects honour and reputation through the Criminal Code and the Civil Code at the same time. The criminal offences against honour are set out in articles 173 to 178 of the Criminal Code, with the three core provisions being article 173 (defamation), article 174 (wilful defamation, known as Verleumdung or calomnie), and article 177 (insult, Beschimpfung). Separately, articles 28 to 28l of the Civil Code protect the personality (Persönlichkeit), and a person whose reputation is unlawfully harmed can ask the civil courts to stop, remove, or declare the infringement and, in suitable cases, to award damages or satisfaction. Because the two systems run in parallel, a single false statement can lead to a criminal complaint and a civil personality-protection action.

What counts as criminal defamation under the Criminal Code?

Swiss law distinguishes between defamation and wilful defamation by the speaker's state of mind. Article 173 (defamation) applies where a person, addressing a third party, makes an accusation against or casts suspicion on another of dishonourable conduct or other conduct liable to damage their reputation, or disseminates such accusations. It is a complaint offence punishable by a monetary penalty. Article 173 names no figure of its own, so the ceiling comes from article 34 paragraph 1, which caps a monetary penalty at 180 daily penalty units unless a specific provision says otherwise. Article 174 (wilful defamation) applies where the speaker makes or spreads such accusations knowing them to be untrue; it carries a custodial sentence not exceeding three years or a monetary penalty, and where the offender acts systematically to undermine another's reputation, the monetary penalty is not less than 30 daily penalty units. Article 176 provides that verbal, written, pictorial, and gestural defamation are treated alike.

Watch out: A monetary penalty in Switzerland is expressed in daily penalty units, and the franc value of each unit is set by the court according to the offender's financial circumstances, so the headline number of units is only part of the calculation.

What about insult under article 177?

Article 177 (insult, Beschimpfung) covers a direct attack on another's honour, whether verbally, in writing, in pictures, through gestures, or through acts of aggression. It is a complaint offence and carries a monetary penalty not exceeding 90 daily penalty units. The article contains two mitigating rules: if the insulted party directly provoked the insult by improper behaviour, the court may decline to impose a penalty, and if there is an immediate retaliatory insult or act of aggression, the court may dispense with a penalty for either or both parties. Unlike defamation under article 173, insult typically targets value judgments and abusive expressions rather than specific factual accusations.

What defences and privileges apply?

The central defence sits inside article 173 itself. Under article 173(2), an accused who proves that the statement is true, or that there were substantial grounds to hold an honest belief that it was true, may not be held guilty. This combines a truth defence (Wahrheitsbeweis) with a good-faith defence (Gutglaubensbeweis). However, article 173(3) bars the accused from leading such evidence, and keeps them liable, where the statement was made primarily to accuse someone of dishonourable conduct without any public interest or justified cause, particularly about private or family life. Article 173(4) allows a more lenient penalty or none where the offender recants. Crucially, no truth defence is available for wilful defamation under article 174, because that offence requires that the speaker knew the accusation was untrue.

What remedies and damages are available on the civil side?

Civil protection flows from article 28 of the Civil Code. A person whose personality is unlawfully infringed may apply to the court for protection against anyone who participates in the infringement. The court can order the infringement to be stopped (an injunction), prohibit a threatened infringement, remove existing unlawful content, and declare the infringement unlawful, and it can order the judgment or a correction to be published or communicated to third parties. Where the conditions are met, the claimant can also seek damages for financial loss and, for serious harm, an award of satisfaction (Genugtuung) for moral injury, together with surrender of any profit. Article 41 of the Code of Obligations supplies the general basis for this tort liability, and article 49 makes clear that a Genugtuung is not automatic: it requires the infringement to be unlawful, its severity to justify payment, and the harm not to have already been made good another way, for example by a published correction. Swiss civil law does not set a fixed cap, and satisfaction awards are determined by the gravity of the infringement.

A separate remedy, the Gegendarstellung or right of reply, runs on its own short clock under articles 28g to 28l of the Civil Code. Anyone directly affected by a factual portrayal in periodically appearing media, such as the press, radio or television, can demand publication of a concise reply, free of charge, and the reply must be sent within 20 days of learning of the item and no later than three months after publication, whichever comes first. The right is not unconditional: it does not apply where a medium reported truthfully on public proceedings of an authority and the affected person took part in those proceedings, and a medium can refuse a reply that is obviously incorrect or that breaches the law or public decency.

What are the limitation periods, and how is online defamation treated?

For the criminal offences, two deadlines matter. Under article 31 of the Criminal Code, the victim must file the criminal complaint within three months of learning the identity of the offender, and under article 178 the right to prosecute these honour misdemeanours is subject to a four-year limitation period. On the civil side, personality-protection actions for an injunction or removal can generally be brought while the infringement continues, while monetary claims follow the ordinary limitation rules of the Code of Obligations. The same criminal and civil rules apply to statements made online, including social media, reviews, and comment sections, and disseminating someone else's defamatory statement online can itself fall within article 173. Civil claimants frequently seek removal of online content and an injunction under article 28.

Watch out: Because honour offences are complaint offences, missing the three-month window in article 31 to file a criminal complaint can end the criminal route even though a civil personality claim may still be possible.

How do you bring a defamation claim in Switzerland?

There are two tracks. On the criminal track, the victim files a criminal complaint (Strafantrag / plainte penale) with the police or prosecutor within three months, and the cantonal criminal authorities then handle articles 173, 174, and 177. On the civil track, the claimant brings a personality-protection action under article 28 of the Civil Code in the cantonal civil court, seeking an injunction, removal, a declaration, a correction, and, where warranted, damages and satisfaction. The two routes can be pursued together, and a victim can also claim civil damages within the criminal proceedings. This is general information about Swiss law, not legal advice for any specific dispute.

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