Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Esta publicación cientíca en formato digital es continuidad de la revista impresa
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La re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas, es una pu bli ca ción aus pi cia da por el Ins ti tu to
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co, los cua les son so me ti dos a la con si de ra ción de ár bi tros ca li fi ca dos.
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Vol. 39, Nº 71 (2021), 245-266
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Criminal Liability for Providing
Inaccurate Information about the Spread
of the COVID-19 Epidemic
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.3971.12
Andrii A. Danylevskyi *
Mykhailo A. Akimov **
Vladyslav I. Kutsenko ***
Oleksandr I. Savka ****
Tetiana Ye. Leonenko *****
Abstract
The aim of this study was to identify problems related to
the establishment of criminal liability for providing inaccurate
information about the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, and
propose the ways to solve them. To aim involved the following
methods: systemic approach, descriptive statistics, comparative
approach, descriptive analysis, pragmatic approach, and forecasting.
The eectiveness of health authorities’ response to outbreaks of diseases
depends on the completeness and accuracy of the information disseminated.
In fact, national legislations do not provide criminal liability for providing
inaccurate information about the epidemiological situation in a pandemic.
Therefore, there is a need to develop Interim Guidelines to ensure the
accuracy of information on the epidemiological situation in a pandemic.
A rule that criminalizes the provision of inaccurate information or the
dissemination of inaccurate information about the incidence in an epidemic
and/or pandemic, should be one of the rules on liability for crimes against
national security, and should be punishable by imprisonment for a certain
period and deprivation of the right to hold certain positions and engage in
certain activities. This study is not exhaustive and opens up prospects for
further research in this area.
* PhD in Law, Head of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Donetsk Law Institute of the
Ministry of Internal Aairs of Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9315-9381
** Candidate of Law, Associate Professor of Criminal Law Department, National Academy of Internal
Aairs. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7715-0259
*** Candidate of Economic, Associate Professor of Department of Civil and International Law, Law and
Management Institute, Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic National University ORCID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0003-0878-9360
**** Candidate of Law, Head of the Department of Criminal Law and Procedure, Kyiv University of Law of
the National Academy of Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1723-3412
***** Doctor of Law, Head of the Department of Criminal, Civil and International Law, Law and
Management Institute, Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic National University. ORCID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0001-8466-7192
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Andrii A. Danylevskyi, Mykhailo A. Akimov, Vladyslav I. Kutsenko, Oleksandr I. Savka y
Tetiana Ye. Leonenko
Criminal Liability for Providing Inaccurate Information about the Spread of the COVID-19 Epidemic
Keywords: pandemic; epidemic; inaccurate information;
misinformation; criminal liability.
Responsabilidad penal por proporcionar información
inexacta sobre la propagación de la epidemia de Covid-19
Resumen
El objetivo de este estudio fue identicar los problemas relacionados con
el establecimiento de la responsabilidad penal por proporcionar información
inexacta sobre la propagación de la epidemia Covid-19 y proponer las formas
de solucionarlos. Involucró los siguientes métodos: enfoque sistémico,
estadística descriptiva, comparación y comparación, análisis descriptivo,
enfoque pragmático, pronóstico. La ecacia de la respuesta de las
autoridades sanitarias a los brotes de determinadas enfermedades depende
de la integridad y precisión de la información difundida. De hecho, las
legislaciones nacionales no prevén responsabilidad penal por proporcionar
información inexacta sobre la situación epidemiológica en una pandemia.
Por lo tanto, es necesario desarrollar directrices provisionales para
garantizar la precisión de la información sobre la situación epidemiológica
en una pandemia. Una norma que tipique como delito el suministro
de información inexacta o la difusión de información inexacta sobre la
incidencia de una epidemia y/o pandemia debería ser una de las normas
sobre responsabilidad por delitos contra la seguridad nacional y debería ser
punible con prisión por un período determinado y privación del derecho
a ocupar determinados cargos y realizar determinadas actividades. Este
estudio no es exhaustivo y abre perspectivas para futuras investigaciones
en esta área.
Palabras clave: pandemia; epidemia; información inexacta;
desinformación; responsabilidad penal.
Introduction
The years of 2020-2021 have become unprecedented in the history of
mankind — everyone, regardless of place of residence or stay, was in danger
due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic, which aected
almost all countries of the world, caused signicant changes in all spheres
of public life. Several measures have been implemented in each country
to stabilize the spread of coronavirus disease and stop the growth in the
number of patients in the world. These measures consisted mainly in the
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 39 Nº 71 (2021): 245-266
restriction of certain spheres of life, which led to the problem of ensuring
human rights and freedoms in pandemics (Kacper, 2020).
As a result, the vast majority of people have reconsidered their values,
fundamental interests, their own rights and freedoms, the possibility and
necessity of their restrictions in order to ensure them, and so on. The
modern pandemic, like any dangerous phenomenon, has caused negative
social changes. After all, these and similar phenomena in the world generate
fear, paranoid moods in society, which in turn leads to an increased level of
negative and dangerous manifestations in society (Freckelton, 2020).
These negative social manifestations have aected many spheres of life,
and rst of all, the sphere of protection and maintenance of human life and
health in the rapid spread of Covid-19 and its various strains (Rajat, 2020;
Radu, 2020). In particular, against the background of the spread of a new
viral disease, the number of violent crimes has increased rapidly, especially
in the eld of family relations (Bettinger-Lopezand and Bro, 2020);
cybersecurity and information security crime has increased(Kovaleva et
al., 2020); people’s right to life (Maheshwari and Gautam, 2021) and other
fundamental rights and freedoms (Abrusci et al., 2020) are violated; the
number of crimes in the medical and health care sectors by both doctors
(Alameer et al., 2021) and health workers (Ernesto D’Aloja et al., 2020)
has increased, thus raising the issue of medical ethics during the pandemic
(Bustan et al., 2021). Besides, there are frequent violations of quarantine
restrictions and prohibitions (Kovalova, 2021) aimed at stabilizing the
health situation and reducing the incidence in the world until overcoming
the global pandemic. Of course, this negatively aects the level of public life
both in individual countries and in the world.
But one of the biggest threats to protecting the population from the
spread of the pandemic and protecting the right to life and health is the
falsication of morbidity data and the spread of inaccurate statics. A
pandemic is a phenomenon that is developing very rapidly, and the quality
of counteraction to this phenomenon is based on the analysis of the latest
data that can provide an answer about the sources, rates of spread, risks
(Kacper, 2020; Li et al., 2020). The eectiveness of such activities depends
on the data which must be reliable, complete and comprehensive in
describing the situation (Barnert et al., 2020).
1. Literature review
A large number of recent studies deal with certain aspects of counteracting
the spread of the Covid-19 virus in the world, ensuring the protection of the
population from the spread of this disease, and overcoming the pandemic.
Researchers and healthcare workers propose a number of measures to
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Tetiana Ye. Leonenko
Criminal Liability for Providing Inaccurate Information about the Spread of the COVID-19 Epidemic
protect safety in a pandemic, and given these threats, the necessary step
is to develop new security measures for all areas of public life, which are
covered in the relevant sources.
The security of life, health of the population, other social spheres
(economic, informational, medical, cybernetic, etc.) constitute the national
security of individual states. That is why the vast majority of countries and
international organizations are working to improve the legislation, which
will provide additional guarantees of compliance in a pandemic. The issues
of responsibility of states for oenses in the eld of anti-pandemic activities
and the use of international law resources (Quintana and Uriburu, 2020;
Allahverdipour, 2020) for this purpose are currently being developed;
special criminological research is carried out in the economic sphere in
a pandemic (USA) (Friedrichs and Vegh Weis, 2021); the problems of
criminal liability in a pandemic are studied, including liability for violations
of anti-epidemic and sanitary rules in some countries and regions of the
world (Ukraine (Kovalova, 2021), Syria (Roger and Layla, 2020) China
(Roger and Layla, 2020), India (Dattaa et al., 2020) Bahrain (Bani-issa,
2021), Africa (Bani-issa, 2021).
One of the main directions, given the importance of obtaining accurate
information, is to establish responsibility for providing ocial inaccurate
information on the incidence of Covid-19 and disseminating inaccurate
information about the epidemic — for the so-called infodemic in the global
Covid-19 pandemic (Gorbatenko, 2021; Yirong, 2021). In particular, the
impact of unreliable news and misinformation during a pandemic on
both the epidemiological situation and other areas of social life is studied
(Kacper, 2020); negative consequences of misinformation of the population
through messages or stories about protection against Covid-19 (Hurford et
al., 2021); modelling and forecasting of consequences of the failure to use
standard data on Covid-19 is carried out (Ashra-Rizi and Zahra, 2020);
the dangers of inaccurate messages are emphasized (Bratu, 2020; Minn,
2021).
Despite the danger of providing inaccurate data on the state of the
Covid-19 epidemic, both for the individual and for each country, the
problem of liability, including criminal liability, for providing inaccurate
information on the incidence rate remains unresolved. However, in
the context of globalization and the need to join forces to overcome the
pandemic in the world, appropriate standards must be developed at both
national and international levels. So, this study is the rst to raise the
problem of criminal liability for providing inaccurate information about the
spread of the Covid-19 epidemic in this formulation.
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1.1 Aim
Given the urgency of the study, the aim will be to identify a range of issues
related to the establishment of criminal liability for providing inaccurate
information about the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, and ways to
address them at the national and international levels. The aim involved the
following objectives: determine the grounds for criminalizing the provision
of inaccurate information on the Covid-19 epidemic situation and develop
proposals for improving the legal regulation of criminal prosecution for this
act.
2. Methodology and methods
This study was conducted in a clear sequence, following the stages of
studying the issue based on the logic of the presentation of the material,
in order to achieve the aim, set in the article and full the objectives. The
stages were the following: formulation of the range of issues and dening
the scope of the study; search and selection of literature and other resources;
selection and study of statistics; analysis of the material presented in selected
resources and evaluation of the results of these studies; identication of
unresolved problems of criminal liability for dissemination of inaccurate
information about the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic; determining the aim
of the article; drawing conclusions and making practical recommendations
for solving the problems chosen for research; outlining prospects for further
research in this area.
The study involved statistics on quantitative indicators of morbidity and
mortality caused by Covid-19 by individual countries and regions of the
world, as well as statistics on the dynamics of morbidity of Сovid-19 in the
world for 2020-2021; expert opinions on the inaccuracy of statistics on the
level of morbidity and mortality caused by Covid-19 in individual countries
and in the world. The provisions of international regulatory acts, which
determine certain aspects of the procedure for information circulation
in various sources, in particular on the Internet, were studied in order to
identify gaps and make proposals for their elimination both in international
provisions and in the national legislation of individual countries for holding
liable for providing inaccurate information on the epidemiological situation
in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The legal framework of the study consisted of the provisions of
international regulations, in particular the Council of Europe Convention
for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of
Personal Data, 1981; UN Convention on Access to Information, Public
Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental
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Andrii A. Danylevskyi, Mykhailo A. Akimov, Vladyslav I. Kutsenko, Oleksandr I. Savka y
Tetiana Ye. Leonenko
Criminal Liability for Providing Inaccurate Information about the Spread of the COVID-19 Epidemic
Matters, 1998; Okinawa Charter on the Global Information Society 2000;
and others. The national legislation of 10 countries was reviewed to analyse
the provisions of national legislation that determine the responsibility for
providing inaccurate information, including in the context of a pandemic
on the incidence rate.
The study involved the following methods: the system approach was
used to analyse the Covid-19 pandemic as a system of interrelated and
interdependent measures of national and international health policy;
descriptive statistics, which was used for processing, systematization
and visual demonstration of basic statistical indicators on the incidence
of Covid-19 in some countries and in the world in the form of tables;
comparison was used to determine the dynamics of the Covid-19 epidemic
in the world for 2020-2021; descriptive analysis was used to arrange,
classify and summarize information on public danger and the consequences
of info emic and the dissemination of unreliable news about the incidence
of Covid-19; pragmatic approach to data collection and analysis, which was
used to determine the main grounds for criminalization of illegal acts in the
eld of dissemination of inaccurate information about Covid-19; forecasting
was used to develop proposals and recommendations for improving the
legislation on the establishment of criminal liability for providing inaccurate
information about the epidemiological situation.
3. Results
The eectiveness of health authorities’ response to outbreaks depends
on the completeness and accuracy of the information disseminated. This
also applies to the dissemination of information about the epidemiological
situation on the incidence of Covid-19. The world has been living in
a pandemic for the last two years. This situation is far from over, as all
measures taken during 2020-2021 aimed at stabilizing the epidemiological
situation at all levels (national, regional, global) do not yet give the
expected and desired result. Although there are certain periods of declining
morbidity, the number of people who fell ill with Covid-19 and died as a
result is constantly growing. This is clearly evidenced by ocial statistics
(see Table 1 and Table 2).
Table 1. Data on the incidence of covid-19 (as of September
2021). (Worldometers, 2021).
Country Population Number of
patients Number of
recovered Number of
fatalities
USA 331,002,651 42,799,907 32,434,166 690,714
India 1,380,004,385 33,417,390 32,632,222 444,563
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Brasilia 212,559,417 21,102,536 20,180,106 589,744
Great
Britain 67,886,011 73,71,301 5,934,018 134,983
Russian
Federation 145,934,462 7,254,754 6,485,264 197,425
France 65,273,511 6,942,105 6,612,898 115,960
Turkey 84,339,967 6,794,700 6,285,887 61,140
Iran 83,992,949 5,396,013 4,708,195 116,436
Argentina 45,195,774 5,237,159 5,090,449 114,286
Spain 46,754,778 4,929,546 4,633,527 85,783
Italy 60,461,826 4,627,699 4,383,195 13,233
Germany 83,783,942 4,139,009 3,873,700 93,517
Republic of
Poland 37,846,611 2,897,395 2,659,020 75,487
SAR 59,308,690 2,877,063 2,714,565 85,952
Ukraine 43,733,762 2,344,398 2,230,306 54,829
Czech
Republic 10,708,981 1,685,878 1,650,292 30,429
Japan 126,476,461 1,668,136 1,564,097 17,097
Canada 37,742,154 1,569,186 1,497,434 27,370
Israel 8,655,535 1,211,443 1,122,876 7,494
Republic of
Kazakhstan 18,776,707 857,643 784,541 10,670
Switzerland 8,654,622 823,074 736,388 11,010
Georgia 3,989,167 593,763 558,042 8,498
Republic of
Belarus 9,449,323 512,460 500,051 3,978
Norway 5,421,241 181,195 88,952 841
China 1,439,323,776 95,623 90,074 4,636
Australia 25,499,884 84,086 61,869 1,148
Luxemburg 625,978 77,189 75,209 834
Singapore 5,850,342 75,783 69,614 59
Niger 24,206,644 5,951 5,685 201
San Marino 33,931 5,388 5,240 90
Total in
the world 7,894,214,059 228 112 671 204,762,776 4,688,259
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Andrii A. Danylevskyi, Mykhailo A. Akimov, Vladyslav I. Kutsenko, Oleksandr I. Savka y
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Criminal Liability for Providing Inaccurate Information about the Spread of the COVID-19 Epidemic
Table 2. Incidence of Covid-19 by regions of the world (according
to the WHO as of September 2021). (Global-data, 2021).
Region The number of Covid-19cases
Americas 87,430,315
Europe 67,977,169
South-East Asia 42,385,258
Eastern Mediterranean 15,377,433
Western Pacic 7,779,616
Africa 5,893,789
The dynamics of the pandemic throughout the time was wavy (and
continues to be so): from a sharp increase in the number of patients with
Covid-19 to a gradual signicant reduction in the incidence. Depending
on the season, the seasonal diseases, the number of mass events and the
number of crowded places (the period of celebration of public and religious
holidays, the beginning of studies in schools and universities, starting
work after vacations, etc.), the incidence of Covid-19 is growing rapidly;
the introduction of stricter quarantine measures, the state of emergency
in some countries, the beginning of the period of holidays and vacations
contributes to reducing the incidence rate (see Table 3).
Table 3. Dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic (daily morbidity
and mortality at the end of each month for 2020-2021).
(Worldometers, 2021).
Date (month, year) Incidence rate Mortality rate
January 2020 > 2,000 n/a
February 2020 3,000 n/a
March 2020 75,613 4,788
April 2020 89,843 6,389
May 2020 126,892 4,133
June 2020 183,598 5,756
July 2020 290,503 6,769
August 2020 250,654 4,864
September 2020 322,022 5,661
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October 2020 504,382 6,935
November 2020 497,366 9,185
December 2020 735,218 14,067
January 2021 415,869 9,679
February 2021 320,446 6,638
March 2021 547,699 12,231
April 2021 875,901 14,671
May 2021 368,714 9,040
June 2021 398,202 8,840
July 2021 597,080 9,222
August 2021 538,833 9,581
September 2021 419,393 6,820
Declines in the incidence of Covid-19 in the world in certain periods
indicate that the methods introduced by states at the national level have
been eective. Therefore, these measures were applied in a timely manner,
which means that the information on the statistics was used correctly. With
the onset of the pandemic, the relevant state authorities were forced to
respond quickly to changes in the epidemiological dynamics at the national
level.
The countries have introduced stricter measures to combat the spread
of the disease, or there has been a weakening of anti-epidemic measures.
These measures are introduced, changed and repealed based on statistics
on the incidence rate. And in order to make the change in the eectiveness
of anti-epidemic measures as eective as possible, the data on the number
of people who fell ill, recovered or died corresponded to the real state of
aairs. But, unfortunately, these data are not always real — they are often
falsied to achieve one or another illegal goal.
For example, according to some data, the incidence of Covid-19 in Italy
is 6 times higher than indicated in ocial statistics, and the real mortality it
caused is 60% higher than the ocial one (Corriere Della Sera, 2020). The
ocial incidence of Covid-19 in Ukraine is also far from reality: it is noted
that statistics are only 30% of the actual number of cases (Interfax, 2020).
German scholars have found that the actual number of Covid-19 cases is
10 times higher than ocial gures (Zdrav.Expert, 2021). It is also stated
that the real mortality caused by Covid-19 in the Russian Federation is 72%
higher than ocial gures. In India, the real number of deaths is 5-10 times
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Criminal Liability for Providing Inaccurate Information about the Spread of the COVID-19 Epidemic
higher than the death rate reported in ocial statistics (DW, 2020). As for
the general world statistics, it is also indicated that the real mortality rate
caused by Covid-19 is 60% higher than the ocial data (Financical times,
2020).
The list of countries the ocial information on morbidity and mortality
caused by Covid-19 of which is signicantly dierent from the actual state
of the epidemic can be continued. This situation with the provision of
inaccurate information is disappointing.
Distortion of data on the incidence of Covid-19, in turn, entails a
decrease in the eectiveness of counteracting its growth both at the level of
individual states and at the global level. Thus, this state of aairs makes it
almost impossible to overcome the pandemic in the world.
Such a situation necessitates measures to ensure the provision of
accurate information. One of the eective measures is to bring a person who
spreads false information to the most severe type of liability — criminal.
However, national law enforcement agencies face the problem of the lack
of a specic rule both in individual states and at the international level that
would penalize misinformation in an emergency. Moreover, as the analysis
of the legislation has shown, the criminal law of some countries does not
even have a general rule that establishes responsibility for providing or
disseminating inaccurate information as a threat to national security.
Criminal liability for misinformation as a crime against state interests is
provided in China, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, where misinformation
is punishable by imprisonment for a term and a ne; disseminate false
personal information about certain categories of persons under Canadian
law; Denmark, Great Britain, Germany, India provides responsibility for
disseminating inaccurate information on the Internet, social networks, etc.
(HSDL, 2019). But the responsibility for providing inaccurate information
and disseminating fake data on the Covid-19 epidemiological situation in
these countries is not provided. Some countries, including Ukraine, do not
provide criminal liability for disseminating inaccurate information at all.
A specic term — infodemic — is used in the article for the provision
of inaccurate information or the dissemination of false data, which means
the rapid spread of false news, usually in relation to the pandemic and its
individual aspects. The term has come about recently, as this phenomenon
spreads during the Covid-19 pandemic in the world.
The barrage of false information about Covid-19, some information,
and data about this viral disease, which was often spread by government
ocials and the media, helped to undermine trust in the leaders of health
care organizations and create obstacles to contain the pandemic in the
world. This was caused by the statements of so-called experts, virologists,
and other members of the public, who downplayed the danger of Covid-19
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and spread rumors about the origin of the virus, false information about its
course and consequences. The most common such news includes the so-
called conspiracy theory; danger of vaccination against Covid-19 for human
life and reproductive health; an attempt to establish control over people
(chip implantation) with the help of a vaccine (Parmet and Paul, 2020).
And if such false news is not conrmed by anything, the dissemination of
unreliable statistics on the incidence of Covid-19, which are presented in
the form of gures, often leave no doubt, such data is trusted, and they use
them if necessary.
Recently, the number of cases of misrepresentation in the eld of health
care regarding the epidemiological situation, has increased rapidly, which
requires national policy to ensure the procedure for prosecution for this
dangerous oense. But a logical question arises: can it be a question of
criminal liability; are there grounds for criminalizing such an illegal act?
The answer to these questions can be the principles (grounds) of
criminalization of illegal acts. There is no single approach to the principles
of criminalization of acts in the doctrine of criminal law. However, since this
is not the subject of this study, it is not worth delving into the discussion.
But there are ve main general grounds for criminalizing wrongdoing (see
Figure 1).
Figure 1. Grounds for criminalization of acts (Dorokhina, 2014).
The main and most important reason for criminalizing the oense is
the level of its social danger. Providing inaccurate data on the incidence of
pandemics, concealment of information, suppression, falsication of data
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on certain local aspects in the context of the spread of Covid-19 misleads
both health workers and ordinary citizens. This, in turn, entails a partial
or complete misunderstanding of the situation with morbidity, mortality
and danger of this viral disease in general by ordinary people, resulting in
a further increase in the incidence of Covid-19. However, if the health care
workers rely on inaccurate information about the epidemiological situation,
they will simply not be able to react in time and take the necessary measures
to stabilize the situation. Therefore, we have a so-called vicious circle, in
which the inaccuracy of data leads to failure to take the necessary anti-
epidemic measures, and their failure in turn contributes to an increase in
morbidity, which responsible persons try to hide again by further providing
inaccurate information. This is the reason for the public danger of providing
inaccurate information about the epidemiological situation in individual
regions and in the world in a pandemic, which represents the rst ground
for criminalizing this act.
The second important reason for criminalization is the spread of
the oense. The above data on the ratio of real and ocial data on the
incidence of Covid-19 by individual countries and in general indicates that
the information on the incidence rate is at least 3 times lower than the real
gures; the Covid-19mortality rate is 60% higher than the ocial gures
provided by the authorized persons. Unfortunately, even countries with a
high level of obedience and legality are also included in the list of countries
that provide inaccurate information about the epidemiological situation in
their countries. This indicates the widespread negative phenomenon of the
falsication of data on Coivd-19 pandemic. This is the second ground for
criminalization of acts.
Besides, there are also other grounds for criminalizing illegal acts of
providing inaccurate information about the epidemiological situation
in a pandemic. In particular, if the dissemination of inaccurate data on a
particular disease under normal conditions is only socially harmful and
does not pose a serious threat, except for incorrect statistical reporting, in a
global pandemic, when there is a threat to human life and health in general,
this indicates the existence of such a ground for criminalization as a change
in the nature of the assessment of the harmful eects that the dissemination
of fake information entails.
At the same time, the attitude towards honesty in providing certain
data has changed, regarding the level of morbidity, mortality, and other
indicators of the spread of Covid-19, as it has become a value not for each
person but for the community as a whole. Accordingly, such a reassessment
of the attitude to dishonesty in relation to this type of information
determines such a ground for criminalization as a change in the assessment
of an illegal act in society.
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The emergence and rapid spread of a new viral disease Covid-19 has
become not a national but a global problem. With the rapid increase in
the number of people aected by the disease, the international health
community has had to respond quickly to this situation and develop special
measures to stabilize the health situation in each country. WHO interim
recommendations were developed and enshrined in the document entitled
Infection Prevention and Control Guidance for Long-Term Care Facilities
in the Context of COVID-19 (World Health Organization, 2020). These
measures were to be reected in the national legislation of individual
countries. To ensure the eectiveness of these measures, each state must
ensure their implementation on the basis of data on the epidemiological
situation. And, as mentioned above, the distortion of such data allows
implementing the measures specied in the document. That is, there
is a fth ground for criminalizing such an act as providing inaccurate
information about the incidence of Covid-19.
The above presupposes not so much the possibility but the urgent need
to establish criminal liability for providing inaccurate information in critical
conditions, including the epidemics and pandemics. Such a rule may be
part of an existing one (if any) in national criminal law, which establishes
liability for encroachment on epidemic safety, or a new rule may be created
to establish criminal liability for providing inaccurate information on the
incidence of the population during an epidemic and/or pandemic.
The rule that should be included in the national criminal law of countries
that take all necessary and possible anti-epidemic measures should dene
actions in the form of providing inaccurate information about the epidemic
situation in a pandemic, as well as establish penalties that can be applied to
those who committed such act. Given the scale of the impact of providing
inaccurate information about the epidemiological situation and the level of
morbidity, such an illegal act rst of all poses a danger to everyone living
in a particular country, and consequently threatens the epidemic security
of an individual state. It is the state that is called upon to ensure the safety
of citizens and persons staying on its territory on legal grounds, including
epidemic security. Human health is the greatest value that the provision of
inaccurate data encroaches on, and this illegal act violates the mechanism
of state protection of the human right to life, health, and personal safety.
Therefore, a rule establishing liability for providing inaccurate information
or disseminating inaccurate information on the level of morbidity in
an epidemic and/or pandemic should be included in the rules providing
for liability for crimes against national security. This socially dangerous
illegal act should be punishable by imprisonment for a certain period
and, as inaccurate data are usually provided by persons holding relevant
management positions in health care facilities — deprivation of the right to
hold certain positions and engage in certain types of activities.
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Besides, the right to reliable and complete information in the context
of epidemic and/or pandemic and at the international level needs to be
guaranteed. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an appropriate international
legal act, which will not only indicate the need to prosecute for providing
inaccurate information in an epidemic/pandemic, but also to explain why
this act should be criminalized and on what grounds. These may be certain
Interim Recommendations to ensure the accuracy of information on the
epidemiological situation in a pandemic. This document should contain the
following provisions:
• Stipulating the importance of obtaining reliable information in the
specic conditions of the epidemic/pandemic — obtaining reliable
information on morbidity and mortality caused by Covid-19 is a
guarantee of timely and necessary measures to stabilize the situation
and reduce morbidity.
• Determining the level of public danger of providing inaccurate
information about the epidemic situation of Covid-19 — providing
inaccurate information about this phenomenon entails failure to
take or improper use of necessary anti-epidemic measures, which
further increases the incidence and prevents its overcoming.
• Explaining the abundance of inaccurate data on Covd-19 morbidity
and mortality — the dissemination of fake information and news and
the provision of inaccurate statistics are often carried out by persons
holding senior positions in health care institutions and organizations
in order to avoid the introduction of anti-epidemic restrictions (in
case of data understatement) or obtaining government subsidies to
prevent the growth of morbidity (in case of data overstatement).
• Establishment of the main and additional object of illegal provision
of inaccurate information about the epidemic situation — this illegal
act violates the security in the state, as well as aects the health
and lives of people; determination of the type of legal liability and
provisions that should contain a rule that will establish liability for
providing inaccurate information on the level of morbidity, mortality
and epidemic situation in general in the Covid-19 epidemic/
pandemic in particular — given the public danger and abundance of
this illegal act, responsibility for it should be provided for in national
criminal law by including a rule that will determine the composition
of such an act and the punishment for its commission in the form
of imprisonment for a certain period and a ban on holding certain
positions and engaging in certain professional activities.
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4. Discussion
Thus, ensuring the protection of the population from misinformation
about the incidence of Covid-19 in a global pandemic is no less important
than the practical application of measures taken to stabilize the epidemic
situation at the national and, consequently, global level. Ensuring the
circulation of reliable information in this situation is almost impossible
without taking certain criminal law measures, in particular, bringing to
justice for providing inaccurate information about the epidemic situation
(Matić Bošković and Nenadić, 2021).
The position on the need to criminalize the provision of inaccurate
data on the incidence of Covid-19 in a pandemic is conrmed by the
socially dangerous nature of threats to information security created by
the dissemination of false news about Covid-19 (Kacper, 2020). If in other
conditions distortion of certain data was not considered a crime, in current
conditions of epidemic threats even partially reliable data can be considered
completely unreliable (Elm and Sarel, 2021). Besides, the so-called
infodemic during the Covid-19 pandemic entails signicant social changes,
including health care, which also requires government intervention and a
more severe response to these oenses (Gorbatenko, 2021).
We cannot agree with the statement regarding the national legislation
of some states, which do not have criminal liability for providing
inaccurate information on any important issue, that their responsibility
for misinformation is suciently regulated (Prostir.ua, 2020; Olatunji et
al., 2020), including misinformation about the epidemic situation. Given
the public danger and the abundance of inaccurate data on the incidence
of Covid-19, which ultimately entails the impossibility of stabilizing the
epidemic situation and overcoming the pandemic, is almost impossible
to ensure compliance with the obligation to provide reliable statistics on
the incidence of Covid-19 (false news) without the introduction of criminal
liability (Kisliy et al., 2021; Bradbury-Jones, 2020; Tereschenko, 2020).
At the same time, we cannot agree that doctors should be protected
from liability (including criminal liability) in a pandemic, as this indicates
their insecurity before the state (based on a study conducted in Italy)
(Ernesto et al., 2020). But it is not advisable to completely eliminate the
responsibility of doctors, even during a pandemic, because even in such
extreme conditions there are manipulations in the medical eld (ALameer
et al., 2021; Inshyn et al., 2020), including falsifying data on the incidence
of Covid-19. Besides, there is a certain, usually unregulated, medical ethics
(Bustan et al., 2021), non-compliance with which cannot be justied even
by an epidemic or pandemic.
It should also be borne in mind that some countries are introducing
strange practices, establishing responsibility for doubting the reliability
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of ocial data on the epidemic situation of the incidence of Covid-19, in
particular Turkey (Owen, 2020). This position is erroneous because such
doubts give rise to the need to revise statistics, which will help to correct
errors and more closely monitor diseases, in particular, Covid-19, in terms
of developing measures to overcome them (French and Monahan, 2020).
Therefore, the development of the provisions and amendments
to national criminal law and relevant international regulations is an
appropriate and well-conditioned step in the face of the urgent need to
protect the population from the threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic
(Oancea, 2020).
Conclusion
The problem of criminal liability for providing inaccurate information
about the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic in this formulation is raised for
the rst time. It is established that the national legislation of the countries
does not provide for criminal liability for inaccurate information about the
epidemic situation in a pandemic. But this illegal act has every reason to be
criminalized: it is socially dangerous; quite common in some countries and
in the world; the social assessment of misinformation has changed towards
increasing condemnation due to the danger posed by the pandemic; the
obligation of international organizations to ensure the application of the
necessary anti-epidemic measures in the states and their legal enshrinement.
The author is the rst to substantiate the need to establish criminal
liability for providing inaccurate information about the spread of the
Covid-19 epidemic and proposes the wording of the relevant norms. Due to
the need to introduce criminal liability for providing inaccurate information
at the national level, there is a need to develop the international regulation
to clarify the necessity to criminalize this act. This regulation may be
Interim Recommendations to ensure the reliability of information about
the epidemic situation in a pandemic, which will contain the following
provisions:
• stipulating the importance of obtaining accurate information in the
specic conditions of the epidemic/pandemic.
• determining the level of public danger of providing inaccurate
information about the Covid-19 situation.
• an explanation of the abundance of providing inaccurate data on the
incidence of Covid-19 and mortality.
• an indication that this illegal act violates security in the state, as well
as encroaches on the health and lives of people.
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• determination of the type of legal liability and the provisions that
the norm should contain.
Liability for this act should be provided for in national criminal law by
including a rule that will determine the composition of such an act and the
penalty for its commission in the form of imprisonment for a certain period
and a ban on holding certain positions and engaging in certain professional
activities.
The norm that will establish criminal liability for providing inaccurate
information or disseminating inaccurate information about the level of
morbidity in an epidemic and/or pandemic should be included in the norms
providing liability for crimes against national security. The said socially
dangerous illegal act should be punished by imprisonment for a denite
term and deprivation of the right to hold certain positions and engage in a
certain type of activity of persons who provide inaccurate information.
This study is not exhaustive and does not solve all the problems associated
with the establishment of criminal liability for providing inaccurate
information about the Covid-19 pandemic situation. Instead, the coverage
of problematic aspects of the regulation of these aspects of information
circulation at the national and international levels opens prospects for
further research in this area, which will improve regulatory and practical
implementation of criminal law support for reliability of information on the
incidence of Covid-19.
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