Law and ethics
Defamation
Also: libel, slander, defamatory
Publishing something that damages a person's reputation. The single biggest legal risk a journalist runs.
Defamation is the law that makes you prove, or defend, what you publish about a person. Written defamation was once called libel and spoken defamation slander, but Australian law now treats them together. The defences exist, but they are technical and the costs are brutal. Read Simon's defamation factsheets before you need them, not after.
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Where Simon Townsend teaches this in the archive: