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12. In this Act—
“the Department” means the Department of Finance;
“publish” and “publication”, in relation to a statement, have the meaning they have for the purposes of the law of defamation generally;
“statement” means words, pictures, visual images, gestures or any other method of signifying meaning.
13.—(1) Article 9 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 is amended in accordance with subsections (2) and (3).
(2) In paragraph (3) for “of justification or fair comment or” substitute “under section 1 or 2 of the Defamation Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 which is available to him or any defence”.
(3) In paragraph (5) for “the defence of justification” substitute “a defence under section 1 of the Defamation Act (Northern Ireland) 2022”.
(4) Nothing in section 10 affects any cause of action accrued before the commencement of the section in question.
(5) Nothing in sections 1 to 5 has effect in relation to an action for defamation if the cause of action accrued before the commencement of the section in question.
(6) Nothing in section 6 or 7 has effect in relation to an action for defamation begun before the commencement of the section in question.
(7) In determining for the purposes of subsection (7)(a) of section 2 whether a person would have a defence under section 3 to any action for defamation, the operation of subsection (5) of this section is to be ignored.
14. This Act comes into operation on the day after the day on which it receives Royal Assent.
15. This Act may be cited as the Defamation Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.
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