1. {
Law of Defamation

2. Experts (e.g Ewelukwa, 2004: 209; Malemi 1999:74,
etc) are all agreed
that for a statement to be defamatory of a person,
that statement must be
false and calculated to:
(a) Lower him in the estimation of right-thinking
men; or
(b) Cause him to be shunned or avoided, or
(c) Expose him to hatred, contempt or ridicule, or
(d) Conveys an imputation on him disparaging or
injurious to him in
his office, profession, calling, trade or business.
(e) Injures his financial credit

3. Similarly, the Penal Code states in Section
391, under Defamation, as
follows:
Whoever by words either spoken or
reproduced by mechanical means or
intended to be read or signs or by
representations, makes or publishes
any imputation concerning any person,
intending to harm the reputation
of such person, is said … to defame that
person.

4. What is Criminal Defamation?
Defamation can be at once a civil as well as a
criminal act. Indeed both
the Criminal and Penal Codes have
provisions on defamation. Section
373 of the Criminal Code defines
Defamatory matter as matter likely to
injure the reputation of any person in his
profession or trade. Even a
dead person can be defamed, according to
both codes.

5. Section 375 of the Criminal code
stipulates that any person who
publishes any defamatory
matter is guilty of a
misdemeanor and is liable
on conviction to imprisonment,
fore knowledge that the
offending
matter is false attracts
imprisonment for two years.

6. the Penal Code stipulates in
Section 392, that “Whoever
defames another shall be
punished with
imprisonment for a term,
which
may extend to two years or
with fine or with both”

7. What is the Purpose of the
Law of Defamation?
The purpose of the law of
defamation is to protect the
reputation of
people resulting from
injurious statements, or acts
by others.

8. Members of Society?”
Of course, an important
condition for the establishment
of defamation is
that the statement should be
such that lowers the plaintiff in
the
estimation of right – thinking
members of the society
generally.

9. By excluding the two
extremes of the naïve and
those who may be too
sensitive, the Supreme Court
seems to have arrived at the
general public
as constituting right –
thinking members of society.

10. What are the Essentials of
Defamation?

11. Publication
The offending statement
must have been published.
Publication means
that the statement was
communicated to a third
party, other than the
plaintiff.

12. Another essential ingredient of
defamation is that the offending
statement must have a
malicious intent. Malice is evil
motive or spite.
If the plaintiff can prove the
existence of a malicious
intention, the
defence of fair comment by the
defendant will be defeated.

13. occurs, not by the natural
meanings of the
words used, but by some kind
of inference or connotation. If a
plaintiff
alleges innuendo, then he must
establish that the particular
meaning of
the word used refers to him and
can be understood as such.

14. What is Unintentional
Defamation?
A person who suffers
defamation through any
publication can sue and
collect whether or not the
offensive matter as intended
to ridicule him.

15. If a person assents to a
publication either expressly or
impliedly, then he
has no case if some people now
interpret that publication to be
negative
of him. It is more so if the
ordinary meaning of the
published matter is
not derogatory.

16. What is Libel?
Ewelukwa (2004:212) defines
libel as defamation by means
of
writing or by any other
permanent form such as
video tapes, pictures,
was work, effigy etc.

17. The conditions for libel
(a) The publication must be in writing
(b) The publication must be false
(c) The publication must be published
to some other person aside
from the plaintiff and the defendant.
(d) The publication must refer to the
plaintiff and must be
defamatory of him.
(e) The publication must be by the
defendant.

18. What is Slander?
Slander is defamation through
the spoken word or gesture. It is
not
generally actionable upon mere
publication. However, there are
instances where slander could
be actionable per se, that is,
without proof
of special damage.

19. They include:
1. Allegation of a criminal offence punishable with
imprisonment,
such as theft, rape etc.
2. Imputation or allegation of a contagious disease which
may
necessitate the exclusion of the suffer from other
members of
society e.g. AIDS, leprosy etc.
3. Allegation of unchastely against a young woman.
4. Imputation of incompetence or unfitness against a
workman,
which can injure him in his trade, office, trade or
profession.

20. What is Vulgar Abuse?
It has been pointed out by
lawyers that many otherwise
slanderous
statements may be dismissed
by the court as mere vulgar
abuse.

21. Experts say that the court will examine the
particular circumstances
under which the offensive words were
spoken. The court will not
dismiss the offence as mere vulgar abuse
where the words spoken
alleges specific acts of wrong doing or a
crime which will lead to the
person being shunned by the public or
being arrested by the law
enforcement agents.

22. What are the Defences to Defamation?
We shall now consider eight defences to
defamation open to journalists,
authors, publicists, publishers, etc.
They are:
1. Justification or truth
2. Fair comment
3. Privilege
4. Consent to Publication
5. Death of the Plaintiff
6. Res Judicata
7. Accord and satisfaction
8. Innocent dissemination

23. Remedies for Defamation
If a case of defamation has been established
and accepted by the court,
then the plaintiff is entitled to one or a
combination of the following
remedies.
(a) Damages
(b) Injunction, which may be interim,
interlocutory or perpetual.
(c) Publication of retraction or correction
(d) Publication of apology and offer of
amends.