What is libelous in Ireland?

Chucky the tree · 17-08-2006 8:46pm #1

Just wondering what the law on this is for fourms on the internet and newspapers. Thread in feedback about including info in charters for boards.ie. Was just curious about what the law actually is.

Use an example. If i came on to this forum and called Bono and useless c*nt. Is that libelous, or not? What are the media allowed say?

dermot_sheehan · 17-08-2006 10:46pm

Defamation is basically anything that lowers a person in the eyes of right thinking members of society, holding them up to ridicule and contempt. Libel is defamation in permanent form (such as written, on internet etc) while slander is spoken. What is termed "soldiers language", is generally not defamatory since it does not impute an allegation but mereley expresses malice towards a person.

Defamation is a tort (i.e. a civil wrong). It is governed by the Common Law and the Defamation Act 1961. The Defamation Act is constitutionally justified since art. 40.3.2 of the constitution commands the state to protect "... the good name of the citizen", which the court must balance against the art. 40.6 right to free speech. This is a relatively high degree of protection for someones good name and low degree of protection for free speech then for example the united states where for a defamation action to proceed by a public figure, you have to prove malice (New York Times v. Sullivan).

The person alleging defamation has the burden of proving the words defamatory. There are several defences that can be used, the most obvious which is the truth which is a complete defence however the burden is on the defence to prove the truth of every defamatory statement.

A "publisher" of the information, that is a person who imparts the statement to a third party is liable. So in the case of an internet board both the poster and board itself are liable. There is a defence of innocent publication under the defamation act, but this is basically restricted to book distributors who neither knew or ought to have known the distributed work was defamatory. This defence is I believe being expanded by the current defamation bill before the dail to include internet sites.

This current situation contrasts with the U.S. were a federal law holds that internet content providers are not to be regarded as publishers for state law defamation claims.