What can be termed ‘defamatory’?

It is called libel if the statement is in a permanent form (ie: print), if it is transient (ie: spoken) then it is slander. The exceptions to this are broadcast media and public performances where defamation is termed as libel.

A statement is defamatory if it tends to do any of the following:

• Expose someone to hatred, ridicule or contempt;

• Cause someone to be shunned or avoided;

• Lower that person in the estimation of other right-thinking people;

• Cause a loss of business, trade, rank or professional standing.

The party taking action does not have to show that actual damage occurred… just that it could. To test this, a judge will instruct a jury to ask whether the statement would have any of the above effects on the reasonable person.