Cases include action brought by New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns over former IPL chief's tweets
The growth of social networking sites has seen the number of defamation cases involving online content more than double in the 12 months to June, new research has found.
The number of reported defamation court cases in the UK in which the subject was allegedly defamed on blogs or on social media jumped from seven to 16 in the year to May 31 2011, according to research from legal information specialists Sweet & Maxwell.
Some of the 16 cases have been settled, the research indicates and only one arose from an online story produced by a newspaper publisher. This was the successful action brought against Express Newspapers in July last year for a 2009 online article in which untrue allegations of support for Hamas and terrorism by the charity Interpal were made.
None of the cases – which include the case being brought by New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns over comments posed on Twitter by former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi in the high court – involve established media companies.
Barrister and media specialist at Addleshaw Goddard LLP, Korieh Duodu, said the increase was due to the rise of blogging and social networking sites where material is not being checked.
"So much material on the internet is now written by non-professionals without any of the fact-checking that should take place within traditional media organisations," Duodu said.
Duodu, co-author of the latest edition of Defamation: Law, Procedure and Practice, added: "Social media tools have over a billion users worldwide and are growing rapidly in popularity. Nevertheless, they can present a huge problem for individuals and corporates trying to protect their reputations from harmful user-generated content.
"There is certainly a need for greater accountability of the providers of user-generated content; a need to tighten the regulatory framework within which they operate."
The research also reveals a big drop in reported defamation cases involving celebrities, down 59% from 22 in 2009/10 to just nine in 2010/11. It appears that celebrities are increasingly relying on privacy law to prevent potentially damaging stories from even being published.
"With injunctions becoming ever more popular in recent years, many celebrities are now utilising them to prevent stories gaining wider traction in the media," said Duodu.
"The increased use of anonymity orders in privacy claims has enabled well-known individuals to prevent anything being published at all. This will in some cases prevent the need for the individual to sue for libel after the event."
In addition, the research reveals that more businesses are now suing for defamation in order to protect their reputation, with an increase from five cases in 2009/10, to 16 cases in 2010/11.
With businesses under increasing financial pressure, many are increasingly using litigation in order to protect their reputation.
There was a small overall increase in reported defamation cases in the last year, up 4% to 86 compared with 83 cases the year before.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/26/defamation-cases-twitter-blogs
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