Historical Background

Prior to the development of the Internet, individual countries had considerable freedom to define the tort of defamation within their own borders. Modern libel and slander laws, as implemented in many Western nations, are generally descended from English defamation law. The earlier history of the English law of defamation is somewhat obscure. Civil actions for damages seem to have been tolerably frequent so far back as the reign of Edward I. There was no distinction drawn between words written and spoken. In the US, laws regulating slander and libel began to develop even before the American Revolution. In one of the most famous cases, New York publisher John Peter Zenger was imprisoned in 1734 for printing attacks on the governor of the colony. It was then established that the "truth" was an absolute defence against libel while the previous English defamation law had not provided this guarantee. As the law continuosly evolves along with the development of the Internet, that freedom has resulted in some more profound differences in approach. For example, Britain provides limited protection to the press and media when they criticize governmental officials, and therefore tends to be more 'pro-plaintiff'.

With the rapid expansion of the Internet and its seemingly endless freedom to disseminate information of all kinds, new concerns and interpretations have inevitably arisen about conflicts between the right to free speech and the legal mandate to protect people being defamed because of the increasing ease and potential harm facing by the defamed. Electronic media in effect poses such problems as to whether the online service providers are publishers or distributors, where should be the most appropriate forum etc. Different jurisdictions may hold different views when applying the basic concepts of the traditional defamation law to the Internet, which at present the countries cannot escape from their further considerations with the laws development and application. As with other areas of the law, we believe the law of defamation will continue to evolve and adjust to changing social and technological realities.