The newspapers on the Net are not different from the other bodies of press

The highest judicial body of Australia returned tuesday a judgement which is likely to have world implications concerning what can be published on the Internet and to limit the freedom of expression to it.

In what seems first international, the high court decided unanimously that the persons in charge for the publication of information denounced for their defamatory character belonged to the courts of the country where this information is read and not country from where they are diffused.

The supreme court rejected a call interjection by the American news service Dow-Jones which required that a complaint for slandering of the tycoon of the mining sector Joseph Gutnick be examined in the United States rather than in Australia where it saw.

The court gave its green light to an examination of the file in the State of Victoria, where the plaintiff one is established.

The idea is that an action for libel must be examined where the person who estimates herself reached has her reputation to defend.

Link ( provided by : The Australasian Legal Information Institute )


Who told freespeech ?


[Edited on 12-1-2003 by ultra_phoenix]