Criticism is understood to be the assessment on the basis of standards. In addition to the meaning of examining judgement and expressing it in appropriate words, criticism – especially in the verb form kritisieren as well as monierung, also denotes an objection or criticism, provided that criticism is conducted in the matter, this is part of our democracy:
Defamation, on the other hand, in German criminal law means that someone makes defamatory allegations about a person even though they know that the allegations are untrue.
According to §187 of the Criminal Code, the penal provision is: “Whoever, against his better knowledge, asserts or disseminates an untrue fact in relation to another, which is likely to make the latter contemptible or to disparage him in public opinion or to endanger his credit, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or with a fine and, if the offence is committed publicly or by dissemination of a content (§11 paragraph 3), with imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or with a fine.”