The common law defence of qualified privilege allows free communication in certain relationships without the risk of an action for defamation - where the person communicating the statement has a legal, moral or social duty to make it and the recipient has a corresponding interest in ...

Some statements are absolutely privileged, so that there can be no action for defamation even if the words were false and were published with malice. Statements that are protected by absolute privilege include those which are made in [s 25]: parliamentary proceedings reports ...

Lord Birkett said in 1951 - 'It is the right of every man to comment freely, fairly and honestly on any matter of public interest.' This principle means that the common law defence of fair comment may apply where the defamatory words ...

The defendant (the alleged defamer) must prove that the defamatory imputation carried by the material published is substantially true. For example, a person who says that someone is a murderer must prove the fact of murder. Where defamatory matter carries several imputations, it is ...

The defence of innocent dissemination is intended to protect people such as newsagents, booksellers, librarians and internet service providers (ISP) who unwittingly publish defamatory matter without negligence on their part. However, the defence does not stand if the ISP, newsagent etc has the requisite knowledge ...

It is not a defence to an action for defamation that a person was merely repeating what another person said or that the person to whom the defamatory material was published did not believe it. However, there are valid defences that apply, depending on the circumstances ...

For material to be defamatory it must be published (made available) to a third person who is capable of understanding its defamatory significance. A letter is not published if it is in a language unknown to the reader. A letter read only ...

In the past general law divided defamation into two categories - libel and slander. Libel is the publication of defamatory matter in permanent form, while slander is the publication of defamatory matter in non-permanent form. Something defamatory that is printed in a ...

An action for defamation should be commenced in the place of publication. If the material is published in more than one place, the case should be heard where the harm occasioned by the publication as a whole has its closest connection. ...

Public bodies, such as local government councils, cannot sue for defamation. People employed by, or elected to, government authorities may, however, be able to sue in defamation if their personal reputation has been damaged by a publication. General groups (such as lawyers, doctors, ...