House of Commons Amendments

Session 2012 - 13
Internet Publications
Other Bills before Parliament

21

House of Commons

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Public Bill Committee

New Amendments handed in are marked thus

Amendments which will comply with the required notice period at their next appearance

Defamation Bill

Resolution of the Programming Sub-Committee

The Programming Sub-Committee appointed by the Speaker in respect of the Bill

agreed the following Resolution at its meeting on Thursday 14 June (Standing Order No.

83C):—

That—

(1)
the Committee shall (in addition to its first meeting at 10.30 am on Tuesday

19 June) meet—

(a)
at 4.00 pm on Tuesday 19 June;

(b)
at 9.00 am and 1.00 pm on Thursday 21 June;

(c)
at 10.30 am and 4.00 pm on Tuesday 26 June;

(2)
the proceedings shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a

conclusion at 7.00 pm on Tuesday 26 June.

Mr Jonathan Djanogly has given notice of his intention to move a motion in the terms

of the Resolution of the Programming Sub-Committee [Standing Order No. 83C].

Mr Jonathan Djanogly

That, subject to the discretion of the Chair, any written evidence received by the

Committe shall be reported to the House for publication.

Robert Flello

6

Clause  1,  page  1,  line  3,  after ‘unless’, insert ‘the extent of’.

Public Bill Committee: 19 June 2012
22

Defamation Bill, continued

Helen Goodman

4

Clause  1,  page  1,  line  4,  at end add ‘or to the reputation of the claimant’s close

relative if that close relative died within the year prior to the defamatory statement being

published’.

Helen Goodman

5

Clause  1,  page  1,  line  4,  at end add—

‘(2)
For the purposes of this section, “close relative” includes the claimant’s—

(a)
spouse or partner;

(b)
son or daughter;

(c)
brother or sister; and

(d)
father or mother.’.

Robert Flello

12

Clause  2,  page  1,  line  14,  at end insert—

‘(3A)
The defence under this section does not fail on the basis that one or more of the

imputations is not shown to be substantially true, if that imputation would not

materially injure the claimant’s reputation in the light of what the defendant has

otherwise shown to be substantially true.’.

Robert Flello

13

Clause  3,  page  2,  line  8,  at end insert ‘or’.

Robert Flello

7

Clause  3,  page  2,  line  11,  leave out ‘did not hold the opinion’ and insert ‘acted out

of malice’.

Robert Flello

14

Clause  3,  page  2,  line  27,  at end insert—

‘(e)
a defence under common law qualified privilege.’.

Robert Flello

27


Clause  4,  page  2,  line  33,  after ‘interest’, insert ‘unless the claimant can show that

the defendant acted irresponsibly in publishing the statement complained of’.

Public Bill Committee: 19 June 2012
23

Defamation Bill, continued

Robert Flello

26


Clause  4,  page  2,  line  33,  leave out from ‘interest’ to end of line 35.

Robert Flello

28


Clause  4,  page  2,  line  34,  after ‘defendant’, insert ‘, having regard to the nature of

the publisher, the publication and its context,’.

Paul Farrelly

34


Clause  4,  page  2,  line  38,  after ‘regard’, insert ‘may’.

Robert Flello

29


Clause  4,  page  2,  leave out line 39.

Paul Farrelly

35


Clause  4,  page  2,  line  39,  at end add ‘including whether it was part of a report of

current or developing events.’.

Paul Farrelly

36


Clause  4,  page  2,  line  41,  leave out paragraph (c).

Paul Farrelly

37


Clause  4,  page  3,  line  2,  after ‘any’, insert ‘such’.

Paul Farrelly

38


Clause  4,  page  3,  line  4,  leave out paragraph (g).

Paul Farrelly

39


Clause  4,  page  3,  line  6,  leave out paragraph (h) and insert—

‘(h)
the urgency of the matter.’.

Robert Flello

30


Clause  4,  page  3,  line  7,  at end insert—

‘(j)
the reasonable judgement of the author or editor, having regard to what

was known at the time of the decision to publish the statement.’.

Paul Farrelly

40


Clause  4,  page  3,  line  10,  leave out from ‘dispute’ to end.

Public Bill Committee: 19 June 2012
24

Defamation Bill, continued

Robert Flello

8

Clause  4,  page  3,  line  11,  leave out ‘this section’ and insert ‘subsection (3)’.

Paul Farrelly

41


Clause  5,  page  3,  line  22,  after ‘defence’, insert ‘to an action for damages for

defamation.’.

Robert Flello

17

Clause  5,  page  3,  line  23,  at end insert—

‘(2A)
The defence provided in this section is not affected by the operator having a

policy of amending content (“moderation”) after it has been published provided

that any changes made as a result of the actions of the moderator—

(a)
do not significantly increase the defamatory nature of the words

complained of;

(b)
do not remove a relevant defence to an action for defamation in relation

to the words complained of; and

(c)
do not significantly increase the extent of the publication of the words

complained of.’.

Paul Farrelly

42


Clause  5,  page  3,  line  25,  leave out paragraph (a) and insert—

‘(a)
if it was not possible for the claimant to obtain sufficient identifying

details relating to the person who posted the statement so as to be able to

serve that person with legal process,’.

Robert Flello

18

Clause  5,  page  3,  line  25,  leave out from ‘possible’ to end of line 26 and insert—

‘(i)
for the claimant to identify the person who posted the statement,

and

(ii)
for the claimant to contact the person who posted the statement.’.

Robert Flello

19

Clause  5,  page  3,  line  27,  leave out ‘the claimant gave the operator’ and insert ‘the

operator was served with’.

Robert Flello

9

Clause  5,  page  3,  line  30,  leave out ‘any provision contained in regulations’ and

insert ‘subsection (3A)’.

Robert Flello

10

Clause  5,  page  3,  line  30,  at end insert—

Public Bill Committee: 19 June 2012
25

Defamation Bill, continued

‘(3A)
Where a complaint is received by an operator under subsection (3), the operator

must publish a notice of complaint alongside the relevant statement and, if the

operator fails to do so within seven days of notice of the complaint, the operator

will only be entitled to rely on the standard defences available to a primary

publisher, if sued for defamation.’.

Robert Flello

20

Clause  5,  page  3,  line  30,  at end insert—

‘(3A)
The condition in sub-paragraph (3)(a)(ii) will be met if the claimant notified the

web operator and the web operator did not elicit a reply (for whatever reason)

from the author within a timescale provided for in regulations made under this

section.’.

Paul Farrelly

43


Clause  5,  page  3,  line  33,  leave out paragraph (b) and insert—

‘(b)
sets out the statement concerned and gives details as to why its

publication is unlawful (including, for the avoidance of doubt,

information as to why the statement is untrue or why other potential

defences do not apply).’.

Robert Flello

21

Clause  5,  page  3,  line  35,  leave out ‘was’ and insert ‘is’.

Robert Flello

22

Clause  5,  page  3,  line  36,  at end insert—

‘(e)
is authorised by a court, which is satisfied on the basis of the information

that it has before it, that—

(i)
the statement concerned is capable of being defamatory

including having regard to section 1 (serious harm) and is

capable of representing a real and substantial tort in the

jurisdiction based on the extent of publication;

(ii)
would not be likely to benefit from a defence to an action for

defamation;

(iii)
that the terms of subsection (3)(a) have been met.

(f)
may specify a time limit by which the statement complained of should be

removed in order to benefit from the defence in this section.’.

Paul Farrelly

44


Clause  5,  page  3,  line  36,  at end insert—

‘(4A)
If, after service of a notice of complaint, an operator continues to publish the

statement complained of, the court may, on an application by the claimant, make

such order requiring the operator to take down the statement as the court

considers just.’.

Robert Flello

23

Clause  5,  page  3,  line  37,  at end insert—

Public Bill Committee: 19 June 2012
26

Defamation Bill, continued

‘(aa)
make provision as to the matters to be considered by the court when

considering an application to authorise the issue of a notice of complaint,

including the requirements needed to satisfy subsection (3A).’.

Paul Farrelly

45


Clause  5,  page  3,  line  44,  at end insert—

‘(ca)
make provisions as to the procedure to be followed on the making of an

application for a take down order under subsection (4A).’.

Helen Goodman

33


Clause  5,  page  3,  line  45,  at end add—

‘(e)
make provision to require website operators to set up and publicise a

designated email address to receive notices of complaint;

(f)
may require, without exception, authors to release their identities to

website operators and complainants.’.

Paul Farrelly

46


Clause  5,  page  3,  line  45,  at end insert—

‘(5A)
For the purposes of this section—

(a)
the term “operator of a website” includes a web host, an operator of a

social media site, an operator of a search engine or any other information

society service provider;

(b)
an operator of a website which has an automated or manual moderation

policy through which it removes or edits content posted by third parties

will not be treated as the poster of a statement for the purposes of this

section unless the claimant can demonstrate that—

(i)
the website operator knew or ought to have known that it was

facilitating the publication of unlawfully defamatory material; or

(ii)
the removal or editing of the material by the website operator

rendered the statement defamatory.’.

Robert Flello

24

Clause  5,  page  4,  line  4,  leave out from ‘section’ to end of line 5 and insert ‘shall

not come into force without the affirmative resolution of both Houses of Parliament.’.

Robert Flello

25

Clause  5,  page  4,  line  6,  at end insert—

‘(9)
In section 1(c) of the Defamation Act 1996, leave out “a defamatory” and insert

“an unlawful”.’.

Public Bill Committee: 19 June 2012
27

Defamation Bill, continued

Paul Farrelly

47


Clause  6,  page  4,  line  12,  after ‘was’, insert ‘first’.

Robert Flello

15

Clause  7,  page  5,  line  22,  after ‘proceedings’, insert ‘, or of the contents of a press

release circulated or published’.

Robert Flello

31


Clause  8,  page  6,  line  44,  leave out from ‘applies’ to end of line 3 on page 7 and

insert ‘, if—

(a)
a statement is published to the public (“the first publication”), and

(b)
there is subsequently published (whether or not to the public) that

statement or a statement which is substantially the same.’.

Robert Flello

32


Clause  8,  page  7,  line  17,  at end insert—

‘(5A)
Publication shall not be deemed to be materially different merely by virtue of—

(a)
the publication, as part of a regular series of publications, without charge

on the internet of academic or scientific journals which required payment

to access when originally published; or

(b)
the creation of an archive accessible on the internet.’.

Robert Flello

11

Clause  8,  page  7,  line  17,  at end insert—

‘(c)
the comparative quality and credibility of the source of the subsequent

publication, compared with the first publication.’.

Paul Farrelly

48


Clause  9,  page  7,  line  27,  after ‘against’, insert ‘or by’.

Paul Farrelly

49


Clause  10,  page  8,  line  21,  after ‘person’, insert ‘(other than an operator of a

website (as defined in Clause 5).’.



© Parliamentary copyright	Revised 19 June 2012