The tort f cyber defamation is considered to be the act of defaming, insulting offending or otherwise causing harm through false statements pertaining to an individual in cyber space. This commonly done through the Internet via websites, blogs, forums, emails and instant messaging, chat rooms and now in the social networking. Defamation law in general describes the tort as "the issuance of a false statement about another person, which causes that person to suffer harm".
Elements of a Defamation Claim: the party making a defamation claim (plaintiff) must ordinary prove four elements.
- a publication to one other than the person defamed;
- a false statement of fact;
- that is understood as being of and concerning the plaintiff; and tending to harm the reputation of plaintiff. If the plaintiff is a public figure, he or she must also prove actual malice.
There are ordinary 6 possibles defenses available to a defendant who is used for libel (published defamatory communication)
1. Truth. This is a complete defense, but may be difficult to prove.
2. Fair comment on a matter of public interest. This defense applies to opinion only, as compared to a statement of fact. The defendant usually needs to prove that the "opinion" is honesty held and the comments were not motivated by actual "malice"
3. Privilege. The privilege may be absolute or qualified. Privilege generally exist where the speaker or writer has a duty to communicate to a specific person on a given occasion. In some cases the privilege is qualified and may be lost if the publication is unnecessarily wide or made with malice.
4. Consent. This is rarely available, as plaintiff will not ordinarily agree to the publication of statement that they find offensive.
5. Innocent dissemination. In some cases a party who has no knowledge of the consent of a defamatory statement may use this defense.
6. Plaintiff's poor reputation. Defendant can mitigate for a defamatory statement by proving that the plaintiff did not have a good reputation to begin with. Defendant can prove plaintiff's poor reputation by calling witnesses with knowledge of the plaintiff's prior reputation relating to the defamatory content.
Anyway, an opinion cannot be defamatory, but it is merely labeling a statement as your "opinion" does not make it so. Courts look at weather a reasonable reader or listener could understand the statement as asserting a statement of verifiable fact.
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