News organisations call for ‘serious harm’ test in all defamation cases under reformed laws

It is a “mystery” why a serious harm test is not being proposed for defamation cases taken in Ireland as part of the government’s plan to reform existing legislation, the representative group for national news organisations has said.

In a submission to the Oireachtas media committee, Daniel McConnell, editor of the Business Post, has warned that despite the advantages of conflict resolution mechanisms in resolving defamation cases, these will not have the impact hoped for ...