The topic of this thesis are criminal offences against honour and reputation. The thesis tries to explain more closely the terms of honour, reputation, insult, defamation, slander and the distinction between defamation and insult as well as exclusion of unlawfulness for criminal offences of insult and defamation. Following the introduction it explains how to initiate criminal proceedings for those criminal offences and public announcement of the verdict. The thesis also explains the necessary self-defence in criminal offences against honour and reputation which is one of the oldest forms of self- help. The Croatian legislation accepts the theory of equivalence of human rights. However, there are still opinions which deny that honour and reputation can be the object of necessary self-defence. The thesis also analyses libel - publishing untruths in Croatian media and the possibility of protection of privacy, honour and reputation. This topic is the subject of great disagreement in scientific and professional literature. In conclusion it problematizes the antinomy of free speech and privacy rights within the frame of European Court of Human Rights and Croatian legislation, to be more precise within the constitutional frame. The basic categories of the sources used are books, newspaper articles and legal regulations.