Judgment No CCZ 2/14 12 Const. Application No CCZ 78/12 Another very compelling reason for eschewing resort to criminal defamation is the availability of an alternative civil remedy under the actio injuriandum in the form of damages for defamation. Although this remedy may not be as expeditious as criminal prosecution, it affords ample compensatory redress for injury to one’s reputation. If this is correct, the invocation of criminal defamation to protect one’s reputation would be unnecessary, disproportionate and therefore excessive. One of the arguments proffered for the retention of criminal defamation is that injury to one’s reputation may have more serious and lasting effects than a physical assault and that, as is the case with assault, there is nothing excessive about one injury attracting both a civil claim and a criminal penalty. See Hoho’s case (supra) at para. 35. However, what this argument disregards is that an act of assault or malicious damage to property, unlike defamation, impinges upon the very fabric of society, i.e. by threatening the manner in which citizens are expected to interact in their daily lives without fear of physical violence. In the case of defamation, only the individual rights of the complainant are affected, and he has a clear alternative remedy in civil law, without subjecting the defamer to the distress attendant upon criminal arrest and detention. In Hoho’s case, the Supreme Court of Appeal dealt with the constitutionality of a conviction for criminal defamation. The court deemed civil and criminal liability for defamation to be equivalent in the extent of their limitation, as the onerous consequences of criminal liability are counterbalanced by an onerous burden of proof. It was accordingly held, at para. 36, that criminal defamation was not abrogated by disuse and