{"id":321880,"date":"2026-02-28T13:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321880\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T13:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T13:45:09","slug":"whats-changed-under-the-new-defamation-act-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321880\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s changed under the new defamation act in Ireland?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photo: Tingey Law\/Unsplash.<\/p>\n

THE Defamation (Amendment) Act 2026, with most provisions effective from March 1, 2026, significantly overhauls Irish defamation law to curb high costs and, notably, abolish juries in High Court defamation cases.<\/p>\n

Key changes include empowering the Circuit Court to identify anonymous online posters, introducing a \u201cserious harm\u201d test for companies, and establishing new defences for \u201cretail defamation\u201d and live broadcasts.<\/p>\n

Key aspects of the 2026 reforms:<\/p>\n

Abolition of juries:\u00a0High Court defamation cases will now be heard by a judge alone to reduce costs and ensure more consistent, lower damage awards.<\/p>\n

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Online anonymity:\u00a0The Circuit Court can now compel social media platforms to identify anonymous users who post defamatory content.<\/p>\n

\u201cSerious harm\u201d test:\u00a0Companies (bodies corporate) must prove that a statement caused or is likely to cause serious harm to their reputation to succeed in a defamation claim.<\/p>\n

New defences and procedures:\u00a0Simplifies the \u201cfair publication in the public interest\u201d defence, adds new defences for live broadcasting, and revises the \u201coffer of amends\u201d procedure to encourage early resolution.<\/p>\n

Anti-SLAPP measures:\u00a0The Act aims to prevent Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), which are abusive proceedings designed to silence public debate.<\/p>\n

Venue changes:\u00a0While the Circuit Court gains more powers, the overall goal is to make cases faster and less expensive.<\/p>\n

These reforms, stemming from the review of the 2009 Act, shift the balance towards freedom of expression while still providing remedies for serious reputation damage, particularly impacting media, online platforms, and businesses.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Court Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Tingey Law\/Unsplash. THE Defamation (Amendment) Act 2026, with most provisions effective from March 1, 2026, significantly overhauls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1457,149627,27645,3970,61,60,6717,43],"class_list":["post-321880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-court","tag-court-reporting","tag-defamation","tag-explainer","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-law","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}