Defamation Act 2013

2013 CHAPTER 26

An Act to amend the law of defamation.

[25th April 2013]

Prospective

Requirement of serious harmE+W

1Serious harmE+W

(1)A statement is not defamatory unless its publication has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to the reputation of the claimant.

(2)For the purposes of this section, harm to the reputation of a body that trades for profit is not "serious harm" unless it has caused or is likely to cause the body serious financial loss.

Prospective

DefencesE+W+S

2TruthE+W

(1)It is a defence to an action for defamation for the defendant to show that the imputation conveyed by the statement complained of is substantially true.

(2)Subsection (3) applies in an action for defamation if the statement complained of conveys two or more distinct imputations.

(3)If one or more of the imputations is not shown to be substantially true, the defence under this section does not fail if, having regard to the imputations which are shown to be substantially true, the imputations which are not shown to be substantially true do not seriously harm the claimant's reputation.

(4)The common law defence of justification is abolished and, accordingly, section 5 of the Defamation Act 1952 (justification) is repealed.

3Honest opinionE+W

(1)It is a defence to an action for defamation for the defendant to show that the following conditions are met.

(2)The first condition is that the statement complained of was a statement of opinion.

(3)The second condition is that the statement complained of indicated, whether in general or specific terms, the basis of the opinion.

(4)The third condition is that an honest person could have held the opinion on the basis of-

(a)any fact which existed at the time the statement complained of was published;

(b)anything asserted to be a fact in a privileged statement published before the statement complained of.

(5)The defence is defeated if the claimant shows that the defendant did not hold the opinion.

(6)Subsection (5) does not apply in a case where the statement complained of was published by the defendant but made by another person ("the author"); and in such a case the defence is defeated if the claimant shows that the defendant knew or ought to have known that the author did not hold the opinion.

(7)For the purposes of subsection (4)(b) a statement is a "privileged statement" if the person responsible for its publication would have one or more of the following defences if an action for defamation were brought in respect of it-

(a)a defence under section 4 (publication on matter of public interest);

(b)a defence under section 6 (peer-reviewed statement in scientific…