Gary Hevey Gordon & Jackson 9225 8075 9225 7333 ...

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section 19 of the Constitution Act 1975 conferring privileges and immunities on
members of parliament. Importantly, while the state of mind of a publisher may
not be relevant in the plaintiff’s case it may be relevant in defeating a defence
raised 25 .
30. Contextual truth is a defence if the defamatory imputations do not further
harm the reputation of the plaintiff because of the substantial truth of the
contextual imputations 26 .
31. Absolute privilege is a defence, i.e. matters said within parliament or court
including accurate publication of the same 27 . Likewise the publication of public
documents document or a fair summary or extract from a public document is a
defence 28 .
The definition of public document restricts the meaning to
government, curial and quasi government type documents.
32. A defence of fair reporting of proceedings of public concern is provided for
by the Act 29 but this defence, once established, is defeated, if, and only if, the
plaintiff proves that the defamatory matter was not published honestly for the
information of the public or the advancement of education 30 . Interestingly,
learned societies, sports associations and trade associations are all included
within the definition of matters that relate to “proceedings of public concern”.
33. A defence of qualified privilege exists if the defendant proves that the recipient
of the defamatory material had an apparent interest in having information on the
subject, and, the matter is published to give the recipient information on that
25 Sub-section 24(2)
26 Section 26
27 Section 27
28 Section 28
29 Section 29
30 Sub-section 29(3)
Gary Hevey
Gordon & Jackson
9225 8075 9225 7333