What are the limits of defamation law in Australia?
A. Blasphemous, seditious and obscene libels are crimes at common law. All these crimes are embodied in legislation in most Australian jurisdictions. Individuals may be able to bring private actions under the legislation. Actions of slander of title or slander of goods and malicious falsehood are also not part of the law of defamation. These legal wrongs amount to defamation not of persons but of goods and possessions. If a person slanders a company, or a company’s board of directors, that company or its board may bring a defamation action against the slander. If the slanderer slanders the companies goods, the company or its board of directors may commence an action against the slanderer but not in defamation but in malicious falsehood.
