Legislation proposing a significant reform of defamation laws has received cross-party support from the Government parties, Fine Gael and Labour after it was introduced into the Seanad yesterday for debate.
The legislation, which introduces a series of changes to the current laws, also provides for legal recognition of a new press council, announced on Tuesday, which will act as a watchdog on a new code of conduct for newspapers and magazines.
In the Seanad yesterday, Fine Gael also gave a commitment that if it was elected, it would drop the proposed privacy legislation, which was published by the Government in July but which is being delayed pending a review by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell over concerns the proposed laws would stifle investigative journalism.
Mr McDowell, who introduced the legislation in the Seanad yesterday, described it as "long overdue".
He said the current laws were deficient in a number of areas and lagged "behind the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and developments in jurisprudence in other jurisdictions as regards the appropriate balance between freedom of expression and protection of one's good name".
The main changes proposed in the legislation include the requirement that plaintiffs will have to submit a sworn affidavit and to make themselves available for cross-examination in cases.
An offer of apology by a publication will no longer be construed as an admission of liability. Defendants will also be able to lodge compensation sums in court without an admission of liability.
Judges will be able to give directions to juries on damages, while the Supreme Court will be able to decide on a level of damages in an appeal case.
This is aimed at addressing anomalies, highlighted in a recent case involving businessman Denis O'Brien, when a retrial awarded him nearly three times the original damages sum of just over €250,000. The retrial was ordered by the Supreme Court after it found the original damages were too high.
The proposed changes will also introduce a new defence of "reasonable publication", where a media organisation will be able to argue in certain cases that the publication of material, even though defamatory, was on a matter of public importance.
Mr McDowell warned that this defence would only be of use when the media acted responsibly, as the courts will be able to take into account whether the press council complaints procedure was adhered to, and whether journalists attempted to establish all facts and put them to the plaintiff before publication. "It is not a licence for sloppy practice by journalists or editors."
The defamation legislation was welcomed by Fine Gael's Seanad spokesman on law reform, Maurice Cummins, who said: "If Fine Gael is elected after the general election, it will not place the Privacy Bill on the legislative programme."