09-19-2007, 08:04 PM
Last Friday evening, 14th of September 2007, Tonga’s Chief Justice Anthony Ford (pictured) gave an address to the Tonga Media Council at the International Dateline Hotel on the topic of ‘Defamation’.
“A few weeks ago I made the rash offer to your President to come along and speak at one of your meetings about the legal conundrum which is the media and the law of defamation.” Justice Ford said.
Justice Ford said that the reason he did that was because he believes that many people, including media people, have little real appreciation to what defamation is all about. He hastened to add that in this regard, Tonga was not alone as in New Zealand one would encounter a similar lack of appreciation in both the public mind and the media over the law of defamation.
Justice Ford told the members of the Media Council that were present that at best, the topic of defamation was dealt with in a very general way in lectures on the law of torts. He added that one of the reasons why people have a lack of appreciation for the law of defamation is that procedurally it is an extremely complex area of the law.
View full story: http://www.tonga-now.to/Article.aspx?ID=4126&Mode=1
“A few weeks ago I made the rash offer to your President to come along and speak at one of your meetings about the legal conundrum which is the media and the law of defamation.” Justice Ford said.
Justice Ford said that the reason he did that was because he believes that many people, including media people, have little real appreciation to what defamation is all about. He hastened to add that in this regard, Tonga was not alone as in New Zealand one would encounter a similar lack of appreciation in both the public mind and the media over the law of defamation.
Justice Ford told the members of the Media Council that were present that at best, the topic of defamation was dealt with in a very general way in lectures on the law of torts. He added that one of the reasons why people have a lack of appreciation for the law of defamation is that procedurally it is an extremely complex area of the law.
View full story: http://www.tonga-now.to/Article.aspx?ID=4126&Mode=1