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Not unless you can prove they were lying and acting in bad faith. It's not illegal to defame someone based on a falsely held but reasonable belief.
by dangrossman 14y ago
Not unless you can prove they were lying and acting in bad faith. It's not illegal to defame someone based on a falsely held but reasonable belief.
- jeltz 14y agoUnless they are in the UK. The libel laws in the UK are pretty crazy where you need to prove that the statements are true.
- josephlord 14y agoStrictly speaking I believe that if the defamation is published in the UK (including available on the internet and one person in the UK reading it) then the UK courts might still have a go even where neither the author or the defamed are UK based. It is however an expensive path to bring a case (and defend one) and damages aren't always massive so it isn't really worthwhile unless you have money to burn scaring people away from telling stories (true or not) about you.
- rprasad 14y agoIt's worse than that: in the UK, some statements are libel even if they are proven true, simply because the damage to reputation is so great that the truth of the statements is irrelevant if the facts were not public knowledge prior to publication. For example, that guy who got caught in a Nazi-themed sex dungeon...
- pyre 14y agoHow about a falsely held, but unreasonable belief?
- dangrossman 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistake_(criminal_law)#Honestly_held_by_unreasonable_beliefs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistake_(criminal_law)#Honestly...