Defences to Defamation in Singapore

The online arena is harsh and brutal. At any point, anyone may leave a post that goes viral. This is especially alarming for any business, as every business relies on its reputation to bring in clients and customers. Therefore, it is no surprise that business owners take defamatory posts very seriously. Of course, this also extends to claims between individuals as nobody would want to be defamed.

This article will explore what are the possible ways to defend yourself against a defamation claim if you are threatened to be sued or are being sued by a company or a person.

How to defend myself against a Defamation Claim

Defence of Justification

The Defence of Justification is the strongest defence, as an absolute defence. Justification entails proving that whatever the defamatory statement might have been, the statement was true. This is because something that is substantially true cannot be used by the claimant to recover damages suffered.

However, it is important to note that the burden of proving the truth of the statement falls on the party being sued, and it is the imputation contained in the statement which has to be proven to be true. Furthermore, in this defence, the intention or belief of the party making the statement is irrelevant as the basis of this defence is the truth.

For example, to prove that a shop has provided bad service, you would need evidence such as videos or photographs showing the results of the bad service and perhaps of the service itself to be able to raise justification as a defence.

Defence of Fair Comment

The most common defence used is that of fair comment. Essentially, this defence operates that the statement was published was only an opinion, and not a defamatory fact. Therefore in this case, it will be for the person defending his or her statement to clearly distinguish between his or her statements which are comments as opposed to statements of facts. If the person defending is unable to do so, then the statements may not attract the defence of fair comment.

Additionally, there must also be no malice by the person making the statement, in that that person genuinely believe what he or she has stated.

However, relying on this defence will necessarily require an examination of the context and circumstances and depend upon the nature of the defamatory statement. For example, the difference between “The service in this shop is terrible” and “I feel the service in this shop is terrible” is clearly that the latter statement was meant to be a personal opinion on the service of the shop.