h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As we've recently had to fail a small number of entries for defamation, we thought it would be useful to add an official page to h2g2 explaining what defamation is, and how you can avoid the pitfalls of defamation law.

Check out our entry on h2g2 and Defamation at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A656796 for more details. We have also added a couple of links to this entry from the House Rules, but the rules have not changed otherwise.

Appreciated, ta very much
(It wouldn't be libellous to say that I had fallen foul to this )

Pleasure!

Hopefully it'll reduce the amount of time spent discussing defamation law in Forums and via email. Since we put up the Intellectual Property page we've had to spend far less time on explaining copyright law to those who didn't know about it, so let's hope it's the same for defamation.

In the text which was sent out to the TransVols there also was a chapter about the impossibility of 'washing' defamatory text by *quoting* (a la 'I tell you, the BBC news said that X was an Y'). Could be useful here as well, couldn't it?

We have to stick with the text as is for the moment Bossel. Everytime we change something like this we have to get the text approved, and it can take a while.

It's a good point though. It's true that saying things like 'A friend of mine told me that X was having an adulterous with Y' doesn't make it any less defamatory. Neither does adding the word 'allegedly'; even though they do it all the time on the BBC TV programme 'Have I Got News for You'.

Can I ask you to explain the following bit to me?:

'Lowering the individual or organisation in the estimation of right-thinking members of society; '

Does that mean 'in the estimation of right-wing members of society' (which would be terrible), 'in the estimation of members of society who think right (correltly)' (in which case, what is 'right'?) or something else?

I'm probably being thick but I don't understand what the sentance means...



Frankie Roberto

'Right' - just, morally or socially correct,

as in 'righteous' or 'the right thing to do'.

Bit subjective though?