Concern was expressed yesterday by a leading expert on media law that the Government may lack the political will to introduce a much-needed Defamation Act while simultaneously proceeding with a badly-planned Privacy Bill which would curtail investigative reporting.
Dr Eoin O'Dell, senior lecturer and fellow in media law at Trinity College Dublin, expressed serious concerns that the Defamation Bill currently before the Seanad may not be enacted due to a lack of political will by the current Government.
Describing defamation reform as "the Cinderella" of Irish law reform in that much has been promised over the past 15 years, Dr O'Dell said it was far from certain that the current Bill was going to be enacted by the Government.
"There seems to be very little political welcome for the Defamation Bill but very significant political welcome for the Privacy Bill apart from some opposition from the Labour Party - the Government wants the Privacy Bill so it's very likely the Privacy Bill will go ahead," he said.
"It's only if they decide that the whole thing is a package that the Defamation Bill will go through - I think the nightmare scenario is that we get the bad Privacy Bill but not the good Defamation Bill," he added.
Dr O'Dell told a conference organised by the Journalism Society at University College Cork that the Defamation Bill was welcome in that it introduces a new defence of fair and reasonable publication while it allows for an apology to be issued without an admission of liability.
It also made welcome amendments in the area of damages, which should see awards reduced, while it increased the power of the Supreme Court to reduce the amount of awards on appeal and it reduced the period for actions from six years down to a maximum of two years.
"It also introduces new fast procedures for parties that simply want an order correcting the defamation. All of these things rebalance defamation and if they come in it means we will have a good, modern defamation law fit for the 21st century - it's a very good Bill," he said.
While the proposed Privacy Bill similarly reduced the period for people taking actions to one year with an additional year at the discretion of a court to give a maximum period of two years, it was overall a bad piece of legislation with serious consequences for journalism.
"It's a very bad Bill because it is focused on one aspect of invasion of privacy without protecting other elements of invasion of privacy and it's overfocused on press invasion of privacy because it doesn't properly protect press rights," Dr O'Dell said.
"It has two defences, the defence of fair and reasonable publication and the defence of newsgathering but both so narrowly drawn that they will have a significant impact on the practice of journalism in Ireland."
He expressed concern that parties taking actions for invasion of privacy could seek to have court case held in private. While the courts would have discretion in this regard, the Bill should have included clear recognition of the right to freedom of expression.
