Defamation Case Study

650 Words2 Pages

Defamation is a very specific area of law that requires certain and specific elements of fact to be maintained. Therefore in order to prove that defamation had taken place, the plaintiff needs to fulfill three elements. Firstly, to be accused of defamation, the plaintiff has to prove that the statement or communication is defamatory, which in another word he or she had made a false statement about you. The key issue in defamation is that it has caused damage to a person’s reputation. To test whether a statement is considered defamatory, one has to prove that: “Does the communication lower or harm the plaintiff’s reputation, leading the plaintiff being shunned, avoided, exposed to hatred or hold the plaintiff up to ridicule?” This is judge from the viewpoints of right-thinking members of society which means ‘ordinary reasonable people in general in the community’. Besides, the plaintiff must show that their reputation is being damaged in the place where the matter was published, for example plaintiff’s usual place of residence or his or her place of employment. A “defamatory matter” can be blatantly telling lies about a person which it ended up ruined a person’s character. Apart from that, giving a false representation which also known as an “imputation” could also considered as violating defamation. However, the court looks at what an ordinary viewer or reader could have understood the meaning of the communication as the literal meaning is not the only meaning that is considered. The meaning might differ from what both the plaintiff and the defendant think and hence, the court will not judge solely based on what is being told by the plaintiff or the defendant. It is only considered as defamatory when it affects their reputation in...

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...” to a third party, no matter it is in written form or oral form is considered as defamatory. For those who work in publication companies like writers, publishers, and editors should be aware of this kind of potential danger. Even though you might only repeating rumors, stories or comments that are made by someone else, you might be charged under defamation for circulating and publicize it to a wider public. For example, a writer overheard a conversation of a bunch of teenagers in the café and he came out with an article about it and publicized it in a magazine. His written piece consists of comments on a teenage girl that work as a prostitute and he named her Miss X from N University. This is considered defamatory action towards the teenage girl because readers will read it and they will identify her. The readers are considered as the third party in this scenario.

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