Defamation

Keni Carmichael of Harper Macleod considers the challenges for Scotland's forthcoming new defamation law. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t come across the Depp vs Heard or Vardy vs Rooney defamation cases. In Scotland, whilst solicitors practising in this area will no doubt

Lauren Rae and Ryan McCuaig outline the coming defamation regime and its advantages. The Scottish Parliament recently passed the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Bill which will introduce the most significant changes to the law of defamation in recent history. The new law has yet to c

The definition of what constitutes a defamatory statement has been set out in legislation for the first time under reforms passed by the Scottish Parliament. The Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Bill aims to simplify and modernise defamation law, while ensuring that a better balance i

An investigation has been launched over allegations the director of a concentration camp memorial in Germany defamed members of the Wehrmacht by suggesting they committed war crimes. Jens-Christian Wagner, director of the Buchenwald memorial, is being investigated by prosecutors who have asked him t

The Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Bill has passed stage one at Holyrood. The purpose of the bill is to clarify and strengthen the statutory underpinning of defamation in Scots law. The bill seeks to do this by placing certain key elements of common law on defamation on a statutory

Three years after a defamation action was brought against him, Scottish Greens MSP Andy Wightman has been vindicated by a judge in the Court of Session. Lord Clark in the Outer House found, among other things, that the allegedly defamatory statements of Mr Wightman lacked the meaning the "ordinary r

MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee are seeking views from the public, media organisations and publishers, internet firms and other experts on proposed changes to the law on defamation. The Justice Committee has been tasked with considering the Defamation and Malicious Publicat

The definition of what constitutes a defamatory statement is to be set out in Scots law for the first time under draft legislation published today. The Defamation and Malicious Publication Bill would simplify and modernise defamation law and aims to ensure that a better balance is struck between pro

181 writers and campaigners including Ian Rankin, Sara Sheridan, Christopher Brookmyre, Karen Campbell, Christine de Luca, Zoe Wicomb, James Robertson and Zoe Strachan have signed a letter authored by Scottish PEN calling on the Scottish government to introduce a defamation bill in the forthcoming y

The Court of Appeal in England & Wales has handed down its judgment in the matter of Howard Kennedy v The National Trust for Scotland [2019] EWCA Civ 648, on appeal from the decision of Sir David Eady, sitting as a judge of the High Court on the Queen's Bench Division Media and Communications Li

The Libel Reform Campaign, which campaigned successfully for the ’serious harm’ test in defamation, has welcomed the judgment in Lachaux v Independent Print Ltd and another, handed down by the Supreme Court yesterday. The case concerned the interpretation of section 1 of the Defamation A

News publishers who appealed over articles defamatory of a man in respect of his behaviour towards his former wife have had their appeal dismissed by justices in the Supreme Court on the basis the “serious harm” test was satisfied. The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the appeal,

According to Advocate General Szpunar, Facebook can be ordered to seek and identify all comments identical to a defamatory comment that has been found to be illegal, and equivalent comments in so far as the latter originate from the same user. In the present case, the EU law relied on does not regul

The Faculty of Advocates has reiterated its opposition to the introduction of a "serious harm" test before defamation actions in Scotland are allowed to proceed. The Faculty's intervention comes as the lawyer who represented Kezia Dugdale in a recent high-profile defamation case brought by a pro-ind

The former leader of the Scottish Labour Party who was accused of defamation over a newspaper article in which she described a social media comment published online by a pro-independence blogger as “homophobic” has successfully defended a legal action against her. Stuart Campbell, publis