The Herald's View: Court judgment on social media posts is a blow to free speech
has faced having to defend in court articles we publish in our newspapers and on our websites but a judgment by the High Court on Tuesday has made clear we can also be liable for things we had no role in writing.
In fact, the judgment’s impact extends much wider than the media. Any community organisation, company or individual risks being sued for comments by third parties posted on their Facebook pages or other interactive social media.has made only modest changes to its social media policies because it wants to maintain the vital connection with readers through social media and considers its role in making accurate information widely available more important than ever.
Federal and state governments should clarify these issues in the current review of Australia’s defamation laws. The first stage of changes, which were implemented in most states in July this year, has addressed some of the issues by requiring a plaintiff to serve a notice of concern on the publisher before starting any court proceedings – a step that was not taken by Mr Voller in 2017 when the comments were made. Good publishers will take bad posts down.
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