Defamation Law As An Ethical Issue In The Media

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“Defamation law is an ethical issue as much as it is a legal issue”

In the media, defaming is taken quite seriously, if an individual is caught in the act. There have been a number of cases where a media individual has defamed someone, for example, Kyle Sandilands’s on air rants – one case where he stated that, Magda Szubanski should be in a concentration camp because she is overweight. Defamation can be defined as the act of damaging the good reputation of an individual ei – slander (Law Hand Book, 2015). This essay will outline whether defamation law is an ethical issue as much as it is a legal issue. Firstly outlining what defamation means for the media industry in Australia, Secondly outlining defamation cases in the media, and then lastly concluding the statement. …show more content…

Individuals believe that they have been defamed if someone says a negative comment about their character. Each defamation case is based on facts, if the offender says something that is accurate about the person, it would not be held up in court; as the alleged defamation is true. If an individual believes they have been defamed there are certain steps they can do to prevent the case going to court. According to Law Stuff (2016), you can ask a person to take the defamatory statement down, if the information is published online; you can report the defamation incident to social media and ask them to take it down (Facebook, Twitter etc). A more serious option is to sue the individual who is responsible for defaming you, to sue the offender it has to be within one year of when they published the alleged defamation. To sue someone with a defamation case, the costs rise depending how long the case is. Most lawyers do a ‘no win no fee’, which helps the victim with minimal funds for the

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