Via Michael Geist, the Supreme Court of Canada today released its decision in Grant v. Torstar (
Grant v. Torstar Corp., 2009 SCC 61).
Grant brought a defamation action against the Toronto Star and a couple reporters for comments they ran about a new golf course development on Grant's property. The action was defended on the basis of a new "responsible journalism defence." The trial judge found in favour of the Plaintiff but was overturned on appeal. The Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeal and found:
Quote:
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The law of defamation should be modified to provide greater protection for communications on matters of public interest. The current law with respect to statements that are reliable and important to public debate does not give adequate weight to the constitutional value of free expression.
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It's available to bloggers and new media too! At paragraphs 96-97 of the judgment, the Supreme Court writes:
Quote:
[96] A second preliminary question is what the new defence should be called. In arguments before us, the defence was referred to as the responsible journalism test. This has the value of capturing the essence of the defence in succinct style. However, the traditional media are rapidly being complemented by new ways of communicating on matters of public interest, many of them online, which do not involve journalists. These new disseminators of news and information should, absent good reasons for exclusion, be subject to the same laws as established media outlets. I agree with Lord Hoffmann that the new defence is “available to anyone who publishes material of public interest in any medium”: Jameel, at para. 54.
[97] A review of recent defamation case law suggests that many actions now concern blog postings and other online media which are potentially both more ephemeral and more ubiquitous than traditional print media. While established journalistic standards provide a useful guide by which to evaluate the conduct of journalists and non-journalists alike, the applicable standards will necessarily evolve to keep pace with the norms of new communications media. For this reason, it is more accurate to refer to the new defence as responsible communication on matters of public interest.
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