(2) The wording of any summary and the time, manner, form and place of its publication are to be for the parties to agree.
(3) If the parties cannot agree on the wording, the wording is to be settled by the court.
(4) If the parties cannot agree on the time, manner, form or place of publication, the court may give such directions as to those matters as it considers reasonable and practicable in the circumstances.
(5) This section does not apply where the court gives judgment for the claimant under section 8(3) of the Defamation Act 1996 (summary disposal of claims).
Removal, etc of statements
13 Order to remove statement or cease distribution etc
(1) Where a court gives judgment for the claimant in an action for defamation the court may order—
- (a) the operator of a website on which the defamatory statement is posted to remove the statement, or
- (b) any person who was not the author, editor or publisher of the defamatory statement to stop distributing, selling or exhibiting material containing the statement.
(2) In this section “author”, “editor” and “publisher” have the same meaning as in section 1 of the Defamation Act 1996.
(3) Subsection (1) does not affect the power of the court apart from that subsection.
Slander
14 Special damage
(1) The Slander of Women Act 1891 is repealed.
(2) The publication of a statement that conveys the imputation that a person has a contagious or infectious disease does not give rise to a cause of action for slander unless the publication causes the person special damage.
General provisions
15 Meaning of “publish” and “statement”
In this Act—
- “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.
16 Consequential amendments and savings etc
(1) Section 8 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (defamation actions) is amended in accordance with subsections (2) and (3).
