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Defamation Act 2013 Explanatory Notes

19.This section replaces the common law defence of fair comment(5) with a new defence of honest opinion. The section broadly reflects the current law while simplifying and clarifying certain elements, but does not include the current requirement for the opinion to be on a matter of public interest.

5

The Supreme Court in Spiller v Joseph [2010] UKSC 53 referred to this as honest comment.

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