Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21
============================================================

Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

The purpose of the live broadcast defence, which is dealt with in section 13, is to try to protect live broadcasting. Everyone involved in politics will know that there is a great advantage to the public at large in there being live broadcasting. It is vital during elections and it is vital during other issues of great public concern. I want to try to ensure that we have a provision within the legislation that facilitates the continuation of live broadcasting.
The section that has been drafted and that was approved on Committee Stage is sufficient to deal with the concerns that Senator Mullen outlined. The first and foremost requirement in respect of this defence being effective is that in advance of and during a broadcast, the broadcaster must have taken reasonable and prudent precautions to prevent the publication by a relevant person of a defamatory statement during the programme. This is something that is going to be looked at in advance of and during the broadcast. Subsection (2) sets out a variety of factors that the court can consider for the purposes of determining whether or not these prudent and reasonable precautions were taken, and they are very detailed, fair and balanced. I have to be fair, not just to the interests of the person who may be defamed but also to the publisher, in this instance the broadcast publisher, who, in fairness, does not have a complete responsibility or control over an individual during a live broadcast. It is certainly the case that if somebody on a live broadcast says something defamatory about another person, then that individual is liable in the context of defamation. What we are trying to do here is to ensure that the broadcaster will have a protection.
The Senator's amendments are too specific and restrictive and would mean it would be very difficult for the defence ever to succeed. When we look at subsection (2), I think that what the Senator is seeking to ensure is considered is already dealt with by way of subsection (2)(e), which states that the court should consider "the overall management in practice of the live programme concerned, and of its participants, by the broadcaster and in particular by the presenter of the live programme". These are very much the issues the Senator has identified, namely whether the presenter challenged the person concerned, has identified that the person about whom the statement was made would completely dispute it and said that that person will have an opportunity to defend themselves. We see this happen frequently on broadcasts that occur when somebody is not represented in the studio. In fairness to our broadcasters, in general they go out of their way to that someone is not there to defend themselves against a charge. This is a difficult area for broadcasters. I have put it in for their protection. I cannot just be thinking about the individual who may have been defamed. I also have to think about fairness for defendants who can end up being sued as well. Unfortunately, I cannot accept the amendments.
I am have brought forward an amendment in this area in light of what was said by Senators on Committee Stage. I refer to amendment No. 16, which will be moved presently.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21