DEFAMATION IN QUEENSLAND Defamation is the speaking or publication of words or other matter that is likely to injure a person's reputation in the eyes of ordinary people in the community.
Defamation gives rise to civil liability. It is also a criminal offence that can give rise to a prosecution. However, prosecutions are rare.
In Queensland the law of defamation is codified and is found in the Defamation Act 1889 (Qld).
If a defamation action is considered, a number of practical considerations should be taken into account. They are:
complexity and expense Defamation actions are very complicated and expensive to pursue. Legal aid is not available for a defamation action; publicity The publicity often attaching to defamation actions might do the plaintiff more harm than good. Many people say and think that there is no smoke without a fire; time and stress A court case may cause anxiety and divert time and energy from more productive pursuits; delays in court hearings Defamation provides a fertile arena for interlocutory (pre-trial) applications to cure alleged pleading defects that can prove expensive for a plaintiff and result in delays in reaching trial; the possibility of compromise A person's reputation might be vindicated by an apology from the person who published the defamatory matter and retraction of what was said, rather than by court action. Often a person's best interests are not service by suing, even if his or her reputation has been injured. Back to Top
The Elements of Defamation A person is defamed when:
defamatory material; "of and concerning" the person; is published. Back to Top
Defamatory Material Material is defamatory if it is:
likely to injure a person's reputation; likely to injure a person in his/her profession or trade or; likely to induce others to shun or avoid or ridicule or despise the person. Material is defamatory if the ordinary reasonable reader concludes that it is likely to lower the esteem in which a person is held. It is not defamatory if only a narrow social group views it as likely to injure a person's reputation or business standing.
For example, the community as a whole does not generally think less of a man who has a blood transfusion. Accordingly, it is not defamatory to say that someone has had a transfusion. If the man who had the transfusion was a Jehovah's Witness, such an allegation could prove particularly damaging to him within his religious community. Even so, the allegation is not defamatory because the reaction of Jehovah's Witnesses on this issue is not the view of the ordinary, reasonable viewer, reader or listener.
The question of whether a statement is defamatory will depend on the circumstances in which it is made. Statements that a person is homosexual, has Negro blood, is a victim of rape, or is a "scab" who refused to participate in an illegal strike have all at different times been recognised as defamatory. Such statements may not be similarly regarded today.
Material may be defamatory even when it is not a direct statement. Insinuations and innuendo are defamatory if the person or people to whom they are published are likely, in the view of the general community, to think less of the person discussed. A photograph that causes a person to be ridiculed can be defamatory.
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Dead People Since the law aims to prevent injury to reputations and to preserve the esteem in which individuals are held by others in the community, dead people cannot be defamed.
