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DEFAMATION ACT 2005 - SECT 32
Defence of innocent dissemination
32 Defence of innocent dissemination
(1) It is a defence to the publication of defamatory matter if the defendant
proves that-- (a) the defendant published the matter merely in the capacity,
or as an employee or agent, of a subordinate distributor, and
(b) the
defendant neither knew, nor ought reasonably to have known, that the matter
was defamatory, and
(c) the defendant's lack of knowledge was not due to any
negligence on the part of the defendant.
(2) For the purposes of subsection
(1), a person is a
"subordinate distributor" of defamatory matter if the person-- (a) was not the
first or primary distributor of the matter, and
(b) was not the author or
originator of the matter, and
(c) did not have any capacity to exercise
editorial control over the content of the matter (or over the publication of
the matter) before it was first published.
(3) Without limiting subsection
(2) (a), a person is not the first or primary distributor of matter merely
because the person was involved in the publication of the matter in the
capacity of-- (a) a bookseller, newsagent or news-vendor, or
(b) a librarian,
or
(c) a wholesaler or retailer of the matter, or
(d) a provider of postal
or similar services by means of which the matter is published, or
(e) a
broadcaster of a live programme (whether on television, radio or otherwise)
containing the matter in circumstances in which the broadcaster has no
effective control over the person who makes the statements that comprise the
matter, or
(f) a provider of services consisting of-- (i) the processing,
copying, distributing or selling of any electronic medium in or on which the
matter is recorded, or
(ii) the operation of, or the provision of any
equipment, system or service, by means of which the matter is retrieved,
copied, distributed or made available in electronic form, or
(g) an operator
of, or a provider of access to, a communications system by means of which the
matter is transmitted, or made available, by another person over whom the
operator or provider has no effective control, or
(h) a person who, on the
instructions or at the direction of another person, prints or produces,
reprints or reproduces or distributes the matter for or on behalf of that
other person.
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