Defamation laws vis-à-vis Freedom to Speech ...

Defamation laws vis-à-vis Freedom to Speech & Expression

Author Name : Minakshi Sharma

INTRODUCTION Defamation is a serious problem which journalists belonging to all the mass media have to deal with in their career. Journalists tend to defame political leaders, film starts, sports people and other famous people either due to carelessness or because of lack of lack of sufficient knowledge about defamation. This research work is an effort to provide a brief account of defamation by stating the difference between Libel and Slander, how is defamation codified in criminal law and punishment for defamation, how is defamation dealt with by civil law and what are the defences available for safeguarding oneself, when faced with the charge of defamation. Simply stated, defamation is injuring the reputation of a person on front of a third party. It can be of the two types; Libel and Slander. If defamation happens through spoken words or gestures, it is termed slander and if it takes place in a written format it is called libel.