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The Defamation Act 2013 reformed the law of defamation in England & Wales to address concerns about the chilling effect of defamation law on freedom of expression. It introduced a serious harm threshold, new statutory defences (truth, honest opinion, publication on a matter of public interest), and provisions dealing with website operators and peer-reviewed publications. It also abolished the common law defences of justification and fair comment, replacing them with the statutory defences.
Pwyntiau allweddol
- Statement must cause or be likely to cause 'serious harm' to reputation (s.1)
- For bodies trading for profit, serious harm means serious financial loss (s.1(2))
- Defence of truth replaces justification (s.2)
- Defence of honest opinion replaces fair comment (s.3)
- Defence of publication on a matter of public interest replaces Reynolds privilege (s.4)
- Website operators: defence where they did not post the statement (s.5)
- Single publication rule: one-year limitation from first publication (s.8)
- Presumption in favour of trial by judge alone, not jury (s.11)