Defamation and malicious falsehood—publication


Produced in partnership with 5RB
Practice notes

Defamation and malicious falsehood—publication


Produced in partnership with 5RB

Practice notes
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This Practice Note examines the role of publication in an action for defamation or malicious falsehood. It reviews key case law and legislation, and considers who may be primarily and secondarily responsible for publication, what constitutes publication, the nature of publication on the internet and jurisdictional issues.

Publication as an ingredient of the tort of defamation

It is an essential ingredient of an action for libel or slander that there has been communication of a defamatory statement to a person other than the claimant.

For a written publication to occur, the words in question must be read and understood by a third party.

For an oral publication to occur, the words must be apprehended and understood by a third party.

In practice a claimant brings one action in relation to multiple publications. Each communication is, in principle, a separate and distinct publication giving rise to a separate cause of action, although section 8 of the Defamation Act 2013 (DA 2013) moderated this principle for the purposes of the limitation of the action (see below).

Further reading

You may wish to refer to

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:
Key definition:
Defamation definition
What does Defamation mean?

A portmanteau term covering both libel and slander.

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