ABSTRACT
Defamation cases tend to ‘lift the carpet’ on things people want kept out of public view. It is fair to say that the media thrives on gossip stories about celebrities, trying to find any given opportunity to expose their lives. This chapter defines the legal meaning of defamation and provides a practical understanding of reputational damage by the media. For journalists in Scotland and Northern Ireland it is important to adhere to defamation in common law cases and understand the meaning of re-publication particularly in online and social media contexts. So-called ‘libel tourism’ or ‘forum shopping’ was certainly one of the primary drivers of the libel reform campaign in England and Wales and one of the main reasons the Westminster Parliament changed the defamation laws in 2013 after growing concern that London had become the ‘libel capital of the world’, particularly for foreign litigants.
