Defamation in Australian journalism has become a major issue. Our Westminster system in which there is no constitutional right to freedom of speech or media freedom means that defamation laws have been stacked against media and journalists. Sydney has become the defamation capital of the world with one in every 79 000 people taking out a defamation case, compared to one in every 2.3 million people in the United States of America. Even strong defenses in defamation cases can come unstuck due to implications, inuendo and connotative meanings behind seemingly innocent words and paragraphs. Journalists in Australia are seeking ways to combat the heavy weight of injustice that drowns out journalistic freedom of speech. The annual Public right to know conference aims to protect freedom of expression in Australia, and the seminar titled ‘Defamation as Suppression’ highlighted the constraints current laws place on free speech in Australia. “Freedom of speech, freedom of information and the public right to know remain highly constrained,” says Peter Manning, UTS’s Adjunct Professor of Journalism.
Defamation cases present significant constraints on journalism, particularly for investigative reporters. “Publication of genres like investigative journalism have been made so much more difficult by the extraordinary complexity of the laws,” Manning says.
There needs to be a major campaign to rectify the imbalance in freedom of speech and defamation cases in Australia.
Source
Defamation law: protecting reputations or preventing reporting? By Chris Collins September 2002 http://www.reportage.uts.edu.au/stories/2002/media/pr2k5.html
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