DEFAMATION BILL
REFINING THE LIBEL LAW
(Our Parliamentary Reporter).
WELLINGTON, This Day. 'The Defamation Bill circulated yesterday codifies the law relating to libel, and sets out all classes in which libel or slander is protected absolutely or partially. An important provision unices it lawful to publish defamatory matter if it is true and tor the public benefit that it should be published. The bill also includes provisions for the consolidation of libel actions against newspapers to prevent successive proceedings. It enables a defendant to lodge a small sum with a denial of lability, the plaintiff paying costs in the event of the defendant winning. $ The bill abolishes criminal liability for slander. Another amendment does away with a. magistrate dealing summarily with ft criminal charge of libel, and allows the defendant to demand a jury in all cases. The bill practically incorporates the present English libel law, plus the recommendations of a conference held on'the matter in England two years ago. The freedom of the press generally is extended, except where defamatory matter is habitually printed. Tire bill contains a provision protecting newspapers from actions by impecunious persons by insisting on the plaintiff giving security for costs.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GEST19130719.2.26.3
Bibliographic details
Greymouth Evening Star, 19 July 1913, Page 5
Word Count
196DEFAMATION BILL Greymouth Evening Star, 19 July 1913, Page 5
Using This Item
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Greymouth Evening Star. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in