Chapter objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be confident about the following:

• You know what defamation is – and understand the law

• You can recognise defamatory statements and know why they are injurious to reputation

• You know how to check to see if a defence makes publication possible

• You know when you are protected by privilege and to what extent

Every journalist needs to understand the issues around defamation. The purpose must be to ‘get away with’ as much as possible – to use the law and the defences to defamation as a tool to publish, not as a brake on the flow of information that is in the public interest. This chapter is not a substitute for detailed study of the laws of defamation; it is a guide to keeping you (and your publication) out of trouble.

Reputation damage: A costly legal business

The basketball player Charles Barkley could dunk the ball and dribble; he also has a good sense of humour. Defamation laws protect people’s reputation – their good name (assuming they have one, of course). Wrongly harming or damaging a person’s reputation can be a serious problem too. What all this means is that while it may be possible to publish all kinds of material before the ‘course of justice’ has commenced or after it has concluded, and not be found to be in contempt, what you publish could still be defamatory. And someone may sue you. So even when there is no ‘course of justice’ running, you still need to be careful about the things you publish.