To Libel or not to libel, that is the question

Dear mouse,

Slander is for oral defamation. Oral ha, sinalita, sinabi. But if it written or published or is made in broadcast media where lots of people have heard it, it becomes libel. Read and learn people.

I am not expressing an opinion since I am not a lawyer. I am merely presenting what I have collated from my research for information purposes.

The debates going on about free speech and defamation or libelous blogs made me research
about defamation and internet laws in different jurisdictions.

This article is a very good read since it gives the readers the defenses available when defamation case is brought to their door and how most of the letters threatening law suit are mere bluffs to prevent further discussion of the issues and silence the “defamers”.

A powerful response to a defamation suit is to expand the original criticism. Defamation suits aim to shut down comment. If enough people respond by asserting their original claims more forcefully and widely, this will make defamation threats counterproductive.

Internet Law

Different countries have different definitions of what constitute defamatory remarks.

The following links give you selected countries’ Defamation and Internet Laws.
1. Australia Defamation and Internet Laws

2. US Internet/Defamation Law

3. Defamation Laws by Jurisdiction

It seems to be that except in the Philippines the common denominator of the defense for defamation is truth.

1. But there are cases when truth is no defense

The article distinguishes what could be defamatory even if what the writer publishes is the truth. The question is, is there an invasion of right to privacy?

1.1 Public disclosure of private facts occurs when a writer discloses private and embarrassing facts about a living person that are not of “public concern.“.

1.2 Matters of public record are not protected by privacy law. If a writer publishes a story disclosing facts obtained from a police publication or a court opinion, the matter is of public record and no lawsuit will be successful.

1.3 Public figures (politicians, movie stars, professional athletes, etc.) have a somewhat lessened right to privacy because of the public’s legitimate interest in their affairs.

Does this include lifestyle columnists and writers?

2.0 Are you committing libel if you publish the article outside of the country of the defamed victim?

Hit them where they live

Recent court ruling have shown that the long-arm statutes of many States are insufficient to compel personal jurisdiction, and that defamation and cyberlibel claims are best made in the jurisdiction of the offender.
This link gives the readers, information on what are the disadvantages of suing the defamer outside the jursidiction of the defamed.

3. Can they sue you when you link and give direction to a libelous blog?

Google has been sued for not removing a link to an article that had defamed the clients of the Real estate agents.

What about bloggers/republishers?
If there are a lot of them and the blog has already stirred controversy that it had already been picked up by mainstream, would the linkers still subject to libel?

This link would show what conditions should be present to make the republishers open to libel suits and what should they do as a defense.

4. Can they sue anonymous publishers/bloggers/commenters?

This link shows a discussion of a defamation suit for anonymous commenters in a forum which will test how successful it is to go after the anonymous persons since John Does subpoenas can now be issued to get the ISP of the web server and hopefully the real names of persons behind the handles/alternicks.

To do this in a blog/forum with as many as more than one hundred commenters, it is a herculean task and a great amount of money involved to bring them out in the open.

Libel suits are very expensive way of soliciting apology, retractions and or deletion of the damaging statements. Punitive damages may not be enough to cover the costs of litigation, the man-hours spent and the stress of the plaintiffs.

And because the cases drag in the court, the people who are planning to bring the case think twice before they engage in a long court battle.

The Ca t

libel,slander,defamation