SBP editorial: Time to discard Ireland’s ‘chilling’ defamation laws

It is hard to think of many laws on the Irish statute book as outmoded, antiquated and incoherent as the Defamation Act. This is a surprise when one considers the act is barely a decade old.

While the act was an improvement, according to experts on defamation, on its 1961 predecessor, Ireland’s publishing industry continues to labour under a piece of legislation that gravely militates against freedom of expression, freedom of the press, ...