Law Provisions for Journalists Facing Defamation Cases
The law of defamation exists to protect both the moral and
professional reputation of the individual from unjustified attacks.
The law tries to strike a balance between freedom of speech and a free
press with the protection of an individual's reputation.
Should journalists face defamation cases there are defences available.
Justification is one of these defences, to use this defence the
journalist must prove that what they have written is substantially
true. Before the defamation act of 1952 was passed, to succeed with a
defence of justification you had to prove the exact truth of every
defamatory statement made in the article in question. But now under
section 5 of the act, the law states that the defence will not fail
merely because the article contains some minor inaccuracies. However
difficulties still arise as it is not the task of the claimant to show
the article is untrue, but the task of the defendant ie. The
journalist to prove the words written are true. The name
'justification' is misleading because the defendant does not need to
show he had a moral or social reason for publishing the words, the
fact they are true is satisfactory. The journalist has to prove the
article in question is 'on balance of probabilities' which is a lower
requirement than 'beyond reasonable doubt'. An example of this is the
1994 case between television actress, Gillian Taylforth and the Sun.
The Sun used the defence of justification successfully after they
published a front page splash entitled 'TV Kathy's sex romp'. The
article stated Gillian and her boyfriend were having sex in a parked
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... defame people. Just by
looking through the daily paper and celebrity magazines one can see a
huge amount of defamatory material. Celebrities are more of a threat
to journalists than those of modest means eg. A journalist may not
hesitate in defaming a person on income support as there is little
they could do with their limited funds. Newspapers often have to
consider whether they can afford not to publish a story, a scoop on a
celebrity may sell millions of papers so they stand to make money even
if they are taken to court and have to pay damages. Sometimes the
story is worth facing a defamation case.
Bibliography
McNae, Essential Law for Journalists, 2003, 17th edition
Peter Carey, Media Law, 1999, 2nd edition
Tom Crone, Law and the Media, 1998, 3rd edition
www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk
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
“The Reporter’s Privilege Compendium: An Introduction.” Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, n.d. Web. 15 November 2013.
Leslie Silko certainly makes accusations that some could argue far exceed the boundaries of journalism integrity, and fail to deliver with evidence to back them up.
Sullivan case was a relevant precedent. This is the case that originally used the term ?actual malice? and decided that it had to be proven as actual malice before any press reports about public officials or any celebrities could be considered as libel. Jerry Falwell actually won the case in a lower court, but when it got to the Supreme Court, they overruled it in favor of Hustler Magazine and Larry Flynt (the owner of Hustler Magazine). There was no dissenting opinions because the case was unanimous in favor of Hustler. The only concurring opinion was from Justice White. He believed that this case was in no way related to the New York Times v. Sullivan because it had ?no assertion of fact?, but says that the company cannot be penalized due to the First Amendment. (Hustler Magazine v. Falwell,
The author’s claims are strong enough because the situations weren’t casual ones. For example, being mistaken for a murderer is not something that is taken lightly; the reporter who was in that situation could’ve been put behind bars for something he didn’t do, all because he happened to be a man of
Media coverage of trials in the digital age has become a considerable issue in the UK and traditional legal remedies to reduce the influence of the press on jurors’ bias appear to be inefficient. In recent years, the discussion of fair trial and free press has been raised due to the fact that in some criminal cases especially high profile criminal cases, the right of defendants has been infringed. High profile criminal case can be loosely described as a case of the suspect who is a well-known person such as a celebrity, an actor, and a businessman as well as a case, which receives massive attention even though the accused
For Eonline, journalists unify the community. Journalists are the heart of Eonline, without them there would not be headliners for their members. On the contrary, biased reporting has been a slight issue with Eonline. Eonline loves to give their members the latest news but it should not be expense of favored opinions. In particular, an Eonline member, Alex Wenger, is unhappy with some biased articles on certain celebrities. In his blog Wenger compares articles from Eonline and TMZ. He noticed that Eonline is especially biased with celebrity Kim Kardashian. In an article, TMZ wrote: “By the grace of God, the 32-year-old mom-to-be somehow managed to stay upright in a pair of sky high stiletto heels.:” as Eonline wrote: “Kim chose an outfit that minimized the belly growth, and praised her curves”. It is obvious that both websites are biased in their articles. Biased reporting will contribute to members looking elsewhere for their pop culture
In the United States, the adversarial system of justice relies on ensuring a criminal defendant receives a fair trial. The sixth amendment gives defendants the right to legal representation in criminal trials even if they cannot afford one themselves. Each city and county in the United States ensures a defendant the right to counsel. There are different ways cities and counties across the United States provide representation for indigent defendants. One such approach to indigent defense is public defender programs and is a popular system used by many states today. Public defender programs have been around since the 1900’s but gained popularity throughout the years due to the many indigent defense cases.
The concept of Criminal Defamation is a hot piece of cake in front of the Supreme Court. To get an insight, we need to know “what defamation is?” Defamation is derived from a Latin word ‘Diffamare’ which means ‘Spreading evil report about someone’. It causes damage to another person’s reputation. Defamation occurred in spoken words or gestures is slander, whereas if done in written or printed form, it's libel. Defamation is punishable as a civil wrong under The Law of Tort and as a criminal wrong under sections 499 and 500 of The Indian Penal Code. Section 499 and 500 of IPC makes defamation punishable, with a maximum Imprisonment of two-year or with fine, or with both.
Intro: Deceiving lies, undesirable drama, repulsive articles. All of this and more is sadly playing a part of being a celebrity in the tabloids today. The falsehoods that are fed to the public are useless and foolish. The media manipulates celebrity stories for more interest from viewers.
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The death of Princess Diana on August 31, 1997 shocked the world; her death was
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The Law of Defamation provides legal protection for an intangible asset which means one's reputation. Defamation occurs when a person expresses words or actions that may lower another person's reputation in the eye of public. Under the Malaysia Law which based on English Common Law liability, there are two types of defamation, libel and slander. Libel occur when word are expressed in a permanent form which can be any kind of form usually visible to the eye, for example, newspaper, book, audio record, e-mail or picture while Slander happen when such word expressed in a temporary form, such as spoken, actions and body movements. In civil cases of defamation, when an individual sues another individual for defamation, the Defamation Act 1957 is applicable.
Because I am a journalism student, I have talked, researched and discussed with many of my fellow students and faculty members about the topics above. I am choosing to talk about this because I think it is important and they are pertinent issues in the journalism field. I am also very interested in this topic, so I thought it would be fun to take the opportunity you gave us to design our own multi-part question and write about something in journalism that is appealing to me.