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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 …