Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

“ Some restraint upon absolute liberty of action is necessarily implicit in the very concept of ‘freedom’. Otherwise you have the law of the jungle under which no one is really free except the largest predators … freedom of speech requires recognition of clear rules which impose reasonable regulation upon what one person may say about another … no particular class of person should be the subject of a special discriminatory rule.” Introduction Defamation law particularly defamation liability for media defendants was shaped in the United States (US) by the 1964 case of New York Times Co v Sullivan (Sullivan case). The 1964 Supreme Court ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan played a key role in developing current libel standards. The Court ruled that public figures have a higher burden of proof in a libel case than private citizens. Public officials have to prove a libelous statement is published with malicious intent. From that case the “public figure test” was created based upon US constitutional law and more precisely the First Amendment. The First Amendment states that, ‘Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.’ Australia lacks explicit legal protection from f