French term (edited): porter atteinte � l'honneur ou � la consid�ration de la personne

Andrés Davila
Libel Law and the Press
International Press Institute Zürich 1971
Chapter II, pp. 25-32, notably this on pp. 26-27:

"There are no corresponding terms in French law (or similar systems) to the English words libel, slander and defamation. The English word defamation cannot be translated into the French word diffamation. (The English word is applicable to all acts which injure a person's reputation, while diffamation is only applicable to some of them. Diffamation moreover is not the same as libel. Libel refers to the form in which a defamatory statement is made: diffamation to the nature of the statement. Diffamation therefore may be either libel or slander.

"In French law a statement which injures a person's reputation or honour is classified either as diffamation or injure.

"The definition of diffamation is found in Article 29 of a Law of 29th July 1881 (the Article was added to the Law by Order in Council [Ordonnance] of 6th May 1944):

" 'Any allegation or imputation of a fact which attacks the honor or the reputation of the person or the body to whom the fact is imputed constitutes diffamation. The direct publication or the reproduction or imputation is punishable, even when it is in an equivocal form or when it refers to a person or body not expressly mentioned but who can be identified from the terms of speech, cries, threats, written or printed texts, placards or posters alleged to be defamatory.'

"The word injure which may be translated into English by 'insult' is defined in the same Article thus:

" 'Any insulting expression, term of contempt or invective that does not contain an imputation of fact constitutes an injure.' "

(Etc., etc.)