What are the defence’s available to a defendant being sued for defamation? Name: Daniel Morris I.D. : 2872346 Date: 17/11/2014 “Defamation is a statement that injures a person’s reputation or that of a company on the eyes of a reasonable person who may hear or read the statement. There is three elements: It must be published i.e. Heard or read by a third party It must relate to a person by implying or by expression. It must be a false statement”1 The defences available to a defendant are: 1. Offer of amends 2. Fair and equitable publication on a matter of public concern 3. Honest Opinion 4. Truth 5. Balance of rights 6. Innocent dissemination 7. Consent Offer of Amends An offer to make amends means to make a suitable reparation …show more content…
The opinion was based on proven or honestly believed allegations of fact that was known to those to whom the statement was published or the opinion was based on proven or reasonably likely allegations of fact and that the opinion related to a matter of public interest.’’ The distinction between fact and opinion is the key to appreciating the nature of the defence. Honest opinion protects the expression of opinion only – it does not extend to the making of factual statements. The publisher’s belief in the facts is not sufficient to transform a statement of opinion into a fact. If the statement is of a factual nature for example if P murdered X or P is a paedophile then it cannot be defended as opinion; you must use truth or privilege instead as they would be the more appropriate defences. To be regarded as an opinion the material must involve a considerable degree of value judgement. E.g. the statements that P is despicable of P is immoral Section 21 of the 2009 act provides that the matters to which a court must have regard in determining the issue include: 1. The extent to which the statement is capable of being …show more content…
If he was responsible only for the one who produced, printed, distributed, or selling of printed documents, or the processing, replication, distribution, display or selling of a film, sound recordings and/or electronic recordings or holding said item in question, playback or distribution equipment then the person is not considered the publisher, or the original editor of the statement. In deciding whether a person took reasonable precautions when going about his actions, then the court will consider the
Defamation is a tort action that has been widely recognized, nonetheless, it has only been within recent years, that the concept has been increasingly utilized in the employment context (Mcconnell, 2000, p. 78) . However, it is useful to first lay out the elements of the defamation tort as they occur in the employment setting. First, there must be a false, and defamatory statement. A statement is defamatory if it harms the employee's reputation or discourages others; such as potential employers, from wanting to have any contact with the employee. Second, the statement, be it written or oral, must be "published," that is, transmitted to a third party. Next, the defendant/employer must be responsible for the publication of the false and defamatory statement. Last, defamation damage to the plaintiff must occur; caused either by the statement itself, or by its actionable
9. Woodgate, R., Black, A., Biggs, J., Owens, D. (2003). Legal Studies for Queensland, Volume 1, ForthEdition, Legal Eagle Publications: Queensland. 10. Woodgate, R., Black, A., Biggs, J., Owens, D. (2003).
The General Court. "General Laws." : CHAPTER 265, Section 37. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. .
... but there must also be some indication in the legislation, its purpose and context showing this intention. The courts’ duty is to ensure that the legislative target is hit and not merely to record that it has been missed, but it must also be careful not to trespass on the separation of powers. If a gap is disclosed in the legislation, the remedy lies in amending the Act.
Kantz contends that facts and opinions are basically the same type of statement. A fact is a claim that an audience recognizes as being true without demanding evidence and only inquiring about clarification. An opinion is a claim that an audience wants proof for. Kantz sees an argument as the writers stand on a topic and the conversation between the writer, the reader, and of the topic.
Descartes states his views on opinion saying that every human has the “power of judging well and of distinguishing the true from the false,” implying that everyone can be right (Descartes 1).
His arguments in opposition to the suggestion made by the different scholars were based on the following facts.
hat for a belief to be true knowledge, it must be supported by evidence. Evidentialism also claims
“The views of people with strong opinions should be given equal prominence to those with compelling scientific evidence”. Discuss with reference to media coverage of a scientific controversy.
According to Lord Reid (at 482-4), “Quite careful people often express definite opinions on social or informal occasions even when they see that others are likely to be influenced by them; and they often do that without talking that care which they would take if asked for their opinion professionally or in a business connection”. This statement is basically about how easily the words are spread and thus, it s difficult to prove special relationships. Sometimes the court does not want to deal with pure economic losses because it is afraid of opening the floodgates, as lots of the cases are indefinite in relation to the foresight and size of the class. Lord Reid described it by saying: “Two words can be broadcast with or without the consent of the foresight of the speaker or writer. It would be one thing to say that the speaker owes a duty of care to the limited class, but it would be going very far to say that he owes a duty to every ultimate ‘consumer’ who acts on those words to his detriment…”(Steele,
The Defamation Act 2013 was passed to help regulation on defamation to deliver more effective protection for freedom of speech, while at the same time ensuring that people who have been defamed are able to protect their reputation. It is often difficult to know which personal remarks are proper and which run afoul of defamation law. Defamation is a broad word that covers every publication that damages someone's character. The basic essentials of a cause of act for defamation are: A untruthful and offensive statement regarding another; The unprivileged publication of the statement to a third party; If the offensive situation is of public concern, fault amounting at least to carelessness on the share of the publisher; and Injury to the plaintiff. Slander and libel are both kinds of defamation, which refers to statements that hurt another person's name. While there are connections, each concentrate on different forms of defamation approaches. Normally, this will include not only the use of certain words to harm a reputation, but also activities such as finger signals or facial expressions in order to emphasize the fabrication that is being dispersed. If the statement is made in writing and published, the defamation is called "libel." Libel deals with printed matter, TV and radio broadcasts, movies and videotapes, social media sites, even blogs, emails, even drawings on a wall. An unpleasant statement is verbal; the statement is "slander." Slander explains defamation that you can overhear, not see. It is commonly spoken statements that distort someone's reputation. The government can't jail someone for making a defamatory statement since it does not break the law. Instead, defamation is considered to be an infringement of a person's ...
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...
subject to any limitations and the UK courts are bound to apply and interpret an Act of Parliament and
...he members of the company. “The Mail and Guardian” is reliable as it is a newspaper. Newspapers cannot publish incorrect work as it is made up of only facts that have been checked. The article cannot be edited at all once published. The rest of my sources could not be altered by the general public. This ensures reliability as it proves that only the members of that company that have access to edit the information can do so, and they are all well informed with adequate and accurate information. I looked at multiple alternative sources where the information I found was backed up and was proven correct. One source- Air Quality- was fairly unreliable. Although you were not able to edit the article, any member of the public was able to add their own link to the web page to redirect viewers to find alternative information, whether it relate to the topic discussed or not.
In this way expert opinions are only important in the Areas of Knowledge that they study and very rarely cross over. An expert’s opinion in the Arts and Ethics areas of knowledge are often more feeble because ‘knowing’ in these areas is generally determined by personal emotion rather than reason or language like