Defamation act 2009

• Enactment Date: 23 July 2009
• Act Number: 31

Number 31 of 2009
DEFAMATION ACT 2009
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
PART 1
Preliminary and General
Section
1. Short title and commencement.
2. Definitions.
3. Saver.
4. Repeal.
5. Review of operation of Act.
PART 2
Defamation
6. Defamation.
7. Amendment of certain enactments.
8. Verifying affidavit.
9. Imputation.
10. Defamation of class of persons.
11. Multiple publication.
12. Defamation of a body corporate.
13. Appeals in defamation actions.
14. Meaning.
PART 3
Defences
15. Abolition of certain defences.
16. Truth.
17. Absolute privilege.
18. Qualified privilege.
19. Loss of defence of qualified privilege.
20. Honest opinion.
21. Distinguishing between allegations of fact and opinion.
22. Offer to make amends.
23. Effect of offer to make amends.
24. Apology.
25. Consent to publish.
26. Fair and reasonable publication on a matter of public interest.
27. Innocent publication.
PART 4
Remedies
28. Declaratory order.
29. Lodgment of money in settlement of action.
30. Correction order.
31. Damages.
32. Aggravated and punitive damages.
33. Order prohibiting the publication of a defamatory statement.
34. Summary disposal of action.
PART 5
Criminal Liability
35. Abolition of certain common law offences.
36. Publication or utterance of blasphemous matter.
37. Seizure of copies of blasphemous statements.
PART 6
Miscellaneous
38. Limitation of actions.
39. Survival of cause of action on death.
40. Agreements for indemnity.
41. Jurisdiction of courts.
42. Malicious falsehood.
43. Evidence of acquittal or conviction.
44. Press Council.
SCHEDULE 1
Statements having Qualified Privilege
PART 1
Statements Privileged Without Explanation or Contradiction
PART 2
Statements Privileged Subject to Explanation or Contradiction
SCHEDULE 2
Minimum Requirements in Relation to Press Council
Acts Referred to
Civil Liability Act 1961 1961, No. 41 Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 2004, No. 31 Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 2004, No. 23 Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Compellability, Privileges and Immunities of Witnesses) Act 1997 1997, No. 17 Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Privilege and Procedure) Act 1976 1976, No. 10 Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961 1961, No. 39 Courts Act 1991 1991, No. 20 Courts of Justice Act 1924 1924, No. 10 Defamation Act 1961 1961, No. 40 European Communities Act 1972 1972, No. 27 Irish Takeover Panel Act 1997 1997, No. 5 Statute of Limitations 1957 1957, No. 6 Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Acts 1921 to 2004
Number 31 of 2009
DEFAMATION ACT 2009
AN ACT TO REVISE IN PART THE LAW OF DEFAMATION; TO REPEAL THE DEFAMATION ACT 1961; AND TO PROVIDE FOR MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH.
[23rd July, 2009]
BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:
PART 1 Preliminary and General
	Short title and commencement.	1.— (1) This Act may be cited as the Defamation Act 2009.
	(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint, by order or orders, either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision, and different days may be so appointed for different purposes and different provisions.
	Definitions.	2.— In this Act—
	“ Act of 1957” means the Statute of Limitations 1957;
	“ Act of 1961” means the Defamation Act 1961 ;
	“ cause of action” means a cause of action for defamation;
	“ correction order” has the meaning assigned to it by section 30 ;
	“ declaratory order” has the meaning assigned to it by section 28 ;
	“ defamation” shall be construed in accordance with section 6 (2);
	“ defamation action” means—
	(a) an action for damages for defamation, or
	(b) an application for a declaratory order,
	whether or not a claim for other relief under this Act is made;
	“ defamatory statement” means a statement that tends to injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society, and “defamatory” shall be construed accordingly;
	“ defence of absolute privilege” has the meaning assigned to it by section 17 ;
	“ defence of qualified privilege” has the meaning assigned to it by section 18 ;
	“ defence of truth” has the meaning assigned to it by section 16 ;
	“ electronic communication” includes a communication of information in the form of data, text, images or sound (or any combination of these) by means of guided or unguided electromagnetic energy, or both;
	“ Minister” means the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform;
	“ periodical” means any newspaper, magazine, journal or other publication that is printed, published or issued, or that circulates, in the State at regular or substantially regular intervals and includes any version thereof published on the internet or by other electronic means;
	“ plaintiff” includes a defendant counterclaiming in respect of a statement that is alleged to be defamatory;
	“ Press Council” has the meaning assigned to it by section 44 ;
	“ Press Ombudsman” has the meaning assigned to it by paragraph 8 of Schedule 2 ;
	“ qualified offer” has the meaning assigned to it by section 22 ;
	“ special damages” has the meaning assigned to it by section 31 (7);
	“ statement” includes—
	(a) a statement made orally or in writing,
	(b) visual images, sounds, gestures and any other method of signifying meaning,
	(c) a statement—
	(i) broadcast on the radio or television, or
	(ii) published on the internet, and
	(d) an electronic communication;
	“ summary relief” means, in relation to a defamation action—
	(a) a correction order, or
	(b) an order prohibiting further publication of the statement to which the action relates.
	Saver.	3.— (1) A provision of this Act shall not affect causes of action accruing before its commencement.
	(2) This Act shall not affect the operation of the general law in relation to defamation except to the extent that it provides otherwise (either expressly or by necessary implication).
	Repeal.	4.— The Act of 1961 is repealed.
	Review of operation of Act.	5.— (1) The Minister shall, not later than 5 years after the passing of this Act, commence a review of its operation.
	(2) A review under subsection (1) shall be completed not later than one year after its commencement.
PART 2 Defamation
	Defamation.	6.— (1) The tort of libel and the tort of slander—
	(a) shall cease to be so described, and
	(b) shall, instead, be collectively described, and are referred to in this Act, as the “ tort of defamation ”.
	(2) The tort of defamation consists of the publication, by any means, of a defamatory statement concerning a person to one or more than one person (other than the first-mentioned person), and “ defamation ” shall be construed accordingly.
	(3) A defamatory statement concerns a person if it could reasonably be understood as referring to him or her.
	(4) There shall be no publication for the purposes of the tort of defamation if the defamatory statement concerned is published to the person to whom it relates and to a person other than the person to whom it relates in circumstances where—
	(a) it was not intended that the statement would be published to the second-mentioned person, and
	(b) it was not reasonably foreseeable that publication of the statement to the first-mentioned person would result in its being published to the second-mentioned person.
	(5) The tort of defamation is actionable without proof of special damage.
	Amendment of certain enactments.	7.— (1) Section 77 of the Courts of Justice Act 1924 is amended, in paragraph (i) (inserted by section 4(a) of the Courts Act 1991 ), by the substitution of “the tort of defamation” for the words “slander, libel”.
	(2) The Civil Liability Act 1961 is amended—
	(a) in section 11, by—
	(i) the substitution, in subsection (5), of “defamatory statement” for the words “libel or slander”, and
	(ii) the insertion of the following subsection:
	“(7) In this section ‘ defamatory statement ’ has the same meaning as it has in the Defamation Act 2009.”,
	and
	(b) in section 14(6), by the substitution of “a defamation action under the Defamation Act 2009” for the words “an action for libel or slander”.
	Verifying affidavit.	8.— (1) Where the plaintiff in a defamation action serves on the defendant any pleading containing assertions or allegations of fact, the plaintiff (or in the case of a defamation action brought on behalf of an infant or person of unsound mind by a next friend or a committee of the infant or person, the next friend or committee) shall swear an affidavit verifying those assertions or allegations.
	(2) Where the defendant in a defamation action serves on the plaintiff any pleading containing assertions or allegations of fact, the defendant shall swear an affidavit verifying those assertions or allegations.
	(3) Where a defamation action is brought on behalf of an infant or a person of unsound mind by a next friend or a committee of the infant or person, an affidavit to which subsection (1) applies sworn by the next friend or committee concerned shall, in respect of assertions or allegations, of which he or she does not have personal knowledge, state that he or she honestly believes the assertions or allegations, to be true.
	(4) Where the plaintiff or defendant in a defamation action is a body corporate, the person swearing the affidavit on behalf of the body corporate under subsection (1) or (2), as the case may be, shall, in respect of assertions or allegations, of which he...