In democratic societies they are not there to stop journalists doing their job. Laws of defamation apply to everyone in society and they exist to protect people from abuse. There is no need to fear the laws of defamation if you take the time to understand them and then take care over what you write. Most countries do this with the help of laws, the most important of which are laws of defamation. So people must be protected from the wrongful use of words. At one stroke words can destroy a reputation which someone has spent a lifetime building. Words can misinform the public and they can hurt people with false accusations. However, used wrongly or unwisely, they can do harm. Words can be used to expose faults or abuses in society and to identify people who are to blame. Journalists use them to inform, entertain and educate their readers and listeners. In the next chapter we consider the various defences which you might be able to use if you are sued for defamation and we see how defamation is punished. In this chapter we look at what defamation is and what most defamation laws say you must not do. In this chapter and the next we consider the main legal danger to journalists: defamation.
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