The Defamation Bill, 2006 (Department of Justice | Oireachtas (pdf)) was before the Seanad again during the week. In my next post, I’ll consider some of the points made during that debate; in this post, by way of background, I want to set out the Bill’s main provisions. It aims to modernise Irish defamation law, and it is certainly an advance on what is there now. However, it is still ungenerous, and it remains to be seen whether its passage through the Houses of the Oireachtas will improve it (or, God help us, not!).…
Category: Defamation
Even in America
Richard Delevan on Newspaper Columnist Loses $7m Libel Case. In America. To a Judge. It is a thoughtful story, with many striking details, and some good advice to journalists. But for me, the most interesting perspective is that, even in America, libel cases and damages awards can still be bonkers!…
Did he see this coming?
Media Regulation
Another day, another conference. Today, the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin hosted a conference on the government’s reform plans relating to the defamation, privacy and broadcasting. I think that it was an important contribution to a crucial debate. Personal highlights included my colleage Eoin Carolan‘s superb conceptual discussion of press freedom in this context (on his birthday, I think; and if I’m right: happy birthday, Eoin!), Dearbhail McDonald’s insights into practical journalism, and Paul Drury’s combative speech that the regulation of the press is a bad idea and won’t work anyway.
I talked about the proposed Press Council from the 2003 Report of the Legal Advisory Group on Defamation (pdf) to the 2006 Bill. …