DEFAMATORY

defamatory,adj. (Of a statement or communication) tending to harm a person’s reputation, usu.

by  subjecting  the  person  to  public  contempt,  disgrace,  or  ridicule,  or  by  adversely affecting  the

person’s  business.  [Cases:  Libel  and  Slander    6–14.  C.J.S.  Libel  and  Slander;  Injurious

Falsehood§§ 2, 5, 10–12, 17–42, 104.]

“A communication is defamatory if it tends so to harm the reputation of another as to lower

him in the estimation of the community or to deter third persons from associating or dealing with

him.” Restatement of Torts § 559 (1938).

“No exhaustive definition of ‘defamatory’ emerges from the cases for, as Lord Reid once said,

it is not for the judges to ‘frame definitions or to lay down hard and fast rules. It is their function

to enunciate principles and much that they say is intended to be illustrative or explanatory and not

to  be  definitive’  [Cassell  &  Co.  Ltd.  v.  Broome  (1972)  AC  1027,  1085].  One  can  nevertheless

achieve a  working  description  by  combining  two  statements,  namely: a  defamatory  statement is

one  which  injures the reputation  of another by exposing him  to hatred, contempt, or ridicule,  or

which tends to lower him in the esteem of right-thinking members of society.” R.W.M. Dias & B.S.

Markesinis, Tort Law 423–24 (2d ed. 1989). [Blacks Law 8th]