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Full-Text Articles in Law
Defamation In Broadcasting, Keith R. Evans
Defamation In Broadcasting, Keith R. Evans
Dalhousie Law Journal
The law of defamation is not new to the world, nor limited to certain nations: Moses commanded: "Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour." The Far East punished slander. The Twelve Tables of Rome recognized defamation. Early Anglo- Saxon and Germanic laws took a serious view of insult by word or gesture. Punishment included excision of the tongue. In England, a book on libel was written three hundred years ago. Under a French ordinance of the past century the publication of a libel was punished by whipping and on a second offence with death. ' Obviously, the consequences …
An Expert's Reputation, Malcolm Merry
An Expert's Reputation, Malcolm Merry
Dalhousie Law Journal
"Comment is free, but facts are sacred" is both a good working tale for journalists and a fairly accurate encapsulation of their obligations under the law of libel. The difficulty of course lies in sorting out fact from comment. It was this difficulty that faced the Nova Scotia courts in Barltrop v. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1 and the appeal judges came up with a different answer from the trial judge. The case was one of the legal reverberations of the controversy about lead poisoning in Toronto during 1974. The C.B.C.'s programme "As It Happens" broadcast a special feature on the …