Re: Would I be up for libel???

Roland John Turner (rjturner@nospam.socs.uts.edu.au)
Mon, 27 Nov 1995 10:34:09 +1100 (EST)

Cameron Hutchison wrote:
>
> Once upon a time Roland John Turner said...
> >
> > You can be as open as you like, as long as you are able to substantiate
> > anything that you state publically. When you have finished writing your
> > piece, go through it sentence by sentence. Any sentence whose content
> > you could not prove to be true before a court, leave out or edit.
>
> I quote the November 1995 issue of Internet Australasia, from an
> article titled "Defamation and the Internet" by Stephen O'Gorman.
>
> "Contrary to popular belief, truth alone is generally not enough
> in itself to defend an action in defamation. The publication of
> true but ugly personal facts, for example, would be defamatory
> unless there is some countervailing public interest in the facts
> being known." [p29, top of column 2]
>
> The article says nothing of who Stephen O'Gorman is (although
> his email is stephen@nospam.ee.su.oz.au - I dont know how much ee's really
> know about law :) so I cant vouch for its accuracy - but its a
> differing view.

That it is... I might expect invasion of privacy in some circumstances,
but defamation for telling the truth seems kind of silly... I'll look into
it sometime.

- Raz rjturner@nospam.socs.uts.edu.au

"It often upsets a man's God fantasies to have (Misquoted? from )
someone shoot down one of his helicopters." (Ben Elton's "Stark" )