Fleishman Hillard: The Political View

In his report Supreme Court establishes new libel defence, the Ottawa Citizen‘s Glen McGregor summarized a Supreme Court of Canada ruling which offers legal protections to journalists and possibly even bloggers for defamation charges based on “‘responsible journalism’ on issues of public importance“. [Note: other media sources are reporting 'responsible communication', a broader term that includes journalists and bloggers]

The degree to which the defence applies will be largely based on the quality of the information being questioned and the steps taken by the reporter to verify the information.

Journalists have long enjoyed some degree of legal protection. However, this is the first time bloggers have been identified in a Supreme Court of Canada ruling which offers such important protections.

The ruling brings about two significant “game changers”:

1) Bloggers who hold themselves to a high standard of journalism can now become even more influential (certainly more protected) than they have been on matters of public interest including politics, environment, health, pharmaceuticals, energy, food and agriculture, etc… The public affairs implications are far reaching.

2) Mainstream print and broadcast media, which have been staging a gradual migration to online delivery, appear to have legitimized protections for digital reporting including investigative journalism. Any concerns about the lack of traditional protections in the digital world are apparently being addressed.

While it’s too early to know for sure, it seems the Supreme Court of Canada has sent a legal wake up call to the private and public sectors to recognize social media as a legitimate and protected channel for public interest reporting.

Stay tuned.

[UPDATE: Michael Geist has published more details about the defence on his blog and included his thoughts about this decision being a significant victory for freedom of expression. I'd like to add that this will likely reduce the time-to-publish for media organizations that have typically relied on clearance from their legal departments before going public with their reports.]