Austlii (High Court of Australia) Defamation – Defences – Qualified privilege – State election – Publication of electoral material – Reciprocity of interest – Proof of malice – Improper motive – Whether intention to cause political damage constitutes an improper motive – Relevance of honest belief in truth of statement – Relevance of reckless indifference to truth or falsity of published material – Relevance of knowledge of falsity of published material – Relationship of common law qualified privilege to extended qualified privilege as identified in Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [1997] HCA 25; (1997) 189 CLR 520.
Constitutional law (Cth) – Implied limitation upon laws restricting freedom of expression concerning governmental and political matters – Whether constitutional question arises having regard to issues before the State trial and appellate courts – Whether constitutional implication may be disregarded – Whether general common law relating to the occasion of qualified privilege is compatible with the Constitution – Whether general common law relating to malice is compatible with the Constitution – Whether common law needs to be developed to ensure compatibility – Ingredients of malice in the circumstances of the case – Whether malice established in communications published in a State electoral campaign.
Words and phrases – ‘malice’.
Judges:
Gleeson CJ
Citations:
[2002] HCA 57, [2002] 212 CLR 1, [2002] 77 ALJR 292, [2002] 194 ALR 161
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Australia
Cited by:
Cited – Quinton v Peirce and Another QBD 30-Apr-2009
One election candidate said that another had defamed him in an election leaflet. Additional claims were made in injurious falsehood and under the Data Protection Act.
Held: The claim in defamation failed. There were no special privileges in . .
Cited – Thornton v Telegraph Media Group Ltd QBD 26-Jul-2011
The claimant alleged defamation and malicious falsehood in an article published and written by the defendants. She complained that she was said to have fabricated an interview with the second defendant for her book. An interview of sorts had now . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation, Constitutional
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.442531
