FINAL REPORT Media Law to unesco july1.pdf - AIBD

transformation towards democratic governance and after the
introduction of freedom of speech legislation as part of the
Constitution, the media was on the forefront to criticize the
government. As a result of the focus on criminal libel, many
journalists were sentenced and imprisoned every week. During the
general elections, the main opposition party aligned itself with
Ghana’s Journalist Association for a repeal of the defamation act.
On 27 July 2001, Ghana became one of the few countries, which
repealed criminal libel legislation. This, as Ampem-Darko pointed
out, opened a “floodgate” for Ghanaian journalists. Since then, civil
libel has overtaken, with many cases concerning privacy. Ampem-
Darko stressed the need for training and specifically referred to
activities by FES. He concluded that today, Ghana was a country
with one of the highest levels of press freedom and, speaking as a
journalist himself, “we know how to defend ourselves”.
GOPAL SREENEVASAN:
The Malaysian lawyer commenced his speech by saying that he
would provide “a very practical perspective”, one that involves the
lawyer’s task of “enforcing judgments” and takes its starting point
from a plaintiff’s position against the media. He first explicated
that special problems would arise in the world of globalize media,
especially with regard to the Internet. In general, following the
Australian Gutnick vs. Dow Jones case, it is open to a plaintiff “to
sue in any jurisdiction where he can prove that his reputation has
been harmed”. The typical weapon of a plaintiff – to obtain an order
of injunction so that defamatory statements could not be made in
the future – is further complicated in the realm of the World Wide
Web. In practice, it can be highly problematic to even locate the
publisher of a defamatory statement. The next step would be to
approach search engines. Most of them are located in the US, where
the “Communications and Decency Act” guarantees “absolute
immunity to any search engine when it comes to the law of
defamation”, as Gopal Sreenevasan pinpointed. However, the Retkin
versus Google case in the UK, which is currently pending, might
change this and could even “open floodgates” in terms of
jurisdiction against search engines, the lawyer said in conclusion.
JACOB VAN KOKSWIJK:
During his speech, Prof Dr Jacob van Kokswijk focused on the
Internet as well, although he introduced himself as “representing
the user”. He argued that the Internet was increasingly connecting
people, providing them with new possibilities in communicating,
creating and distributing content. New forms of interaction such as
“personalized broadcasting” are now possible without official agents
such as companies or the government, thus “empowering the
user” and “bypassing the law”. New media, according to Prof van
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