Defamation and Privacy

Defamation and privacy are important considerations in the entertainment and sports industries. Defamation refers to making false statements that harm a person's reputation. It can occur through spoken or written words, including online publications, social media posts, interviews, or articles. In New South Wales, for a defamation claim to be successful, it must also be established that the publication of the defamatory material caused serious harm to the person’s reputation. To establish a defamation claim, the elements to be proven encompass a false statement was made, the statement identifies or refers to the individual, the statement was published to a third party, and the statement has caused harm to the individual's reputation (section 10A Defamation Act 2005).

Defences

Defendants in a defamation case have a large number of defences available to them both under the common law and under the Defamation Act 2005. These defences include:

• Section 25 of the Defamation Act 2005– if the statements made are ‘substantially true’, they will not be defamatory.
• Section 27 of the Defamation Act 2005– if the statements were made in a situation where they were ‘absolutely privileged’ they will not be defamatory; for example, communications made to the court during proceedings, and communications made to some government bodies like the Ombudsman.
• Section 31 of the Defamation Act 2005– statements made in the public interest which are just an honest opinion rather than a statement of fact, and which are based on proper material will not be defamatory.
• ‘free speech’ – this is a common law defence and is only available in relation to communications made about the government or other political things.

Remedies

If defamation is proven, remedies may include damages (compensation for harm suffered), injunctions (court orders to stop further publication), and retractions or apologies. Note the claim must be brought within one year of the defamation occurring.

At Rep-Revive Entertainment law® we are skilled in all kinds of defamation matters including the production of letters of imputations and defamation prosecution as well as defamation defence