Defamation reform should lead to better journalism

• Published date: 05 April 2023
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

The Department of Justice carried out a lengthy and thorough review of existing defamation law, taking account of submissions from interested parties and from the public. The heads of the Bill published in March reflect the major findings of the department's review. It is worth looking at the proposed reforms to see if they are likely to be effective and to identify any possible unintended consequences of changes to the law

Existing defamation law is only 14 years old. This is not a long time frame in terms of legislation review. The review is taking place now for two reasons. First, the Defamation Act 2009 has a built-in requirement to carry out a review after five years. Second, the media landscape has changed dramatically in the past two decades. Two major changes are the move from accessing news and information from print and broadcasting to digital platforms and the growing awareness of the consequences of largely unregulated social media. The proposed reform that has garnered the most attention is the abolition of juries in defamation cases.

For decades it has been argued that the level of awards in successful defamation cases has been disproportionately high, that Irish awards are the highest in Europe and in many cases are 10 times what are awarded in other comparable countries.

It has been claimed that leaving juries to determine the...