Criminal Law and Defamation: A Study on Digital Defamation and its Impact
Added on 2023-03-20
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Running head: CRIMINAL LAW
CRIMINAL LAW
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note
CRIMINAL LAW
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note
1CRIMINAL LAW
Defamation can be defined as injury to a person’s reputation caused by false statement of
fact. Digital defamation is defamation by means of digital media. Any damage of any kind to a
person’s reputation can be defined as defamation for example emailing to other staffs in a
company stating the manager is incompetent or writing that one of the clients is crazy.
In a recent study conducted by the University of Technology, Sydney it has been
identified that between 2013 and 2017 plaintiffs of defamation actions in Australia are mostly
private individuals and not celebrities or public figures. In addition to the fact it was further
identified that the defendants were mostly private individuals or their employers rather than
large media publishers. During the period of 2013-17 out of the 189 defamation cases 97 were
of digital defamation, this constitutes of almost 51.3% of the total cases. It was further found
that of all the cases only 21% plaintiffs could be considered as public figures and about 25.9%
of the defendants were media companies. The success of plaintiffs varied between 27.3% and
43.3% in the years. Further studies found that in the period of five years there were about 16
cases that involved facebook posts, 20 involving emails, 4 of tweets and 2 involving text
messages.
Defamation is an area where good practices in confidentiality and information handling
will help to protect both clients and workers (Kennedy, Richards & Leiman, 2016).
Good practices related to confidentiality and information handling include collecting and
acquiring of personal information, recording and storing informations, permitting or denying
access to information. Professionals in human services are responsible under the Code of Ethics
(2016) to safeguard the confidentiality of client’s informations. Maintaining confidentiality
require all the data of the client to be securely stored, not disclosing the data without the client’s
Defamation can be defined as injury to a person’s reputation caused by false statement of
fact. Digital defamation is defamation by means of digital media. Any damage of any kind to a
person’s reputation can be defined as defamation for example emailing to other staffs in a
company stating the manager is incompetent or writing that one of the clients is crazy.
In a recent study conducted by the University of Technology, Sydney it has been
identified that between 2013 and 2017 plaintiffs of defamation actions in Australia are mostly
private individuals and not celebrities or public figures. In addition to the fact it was further
identified that the defendants were mostly private individuals or their employers rather than
large media publishers. During the period of 2013-17 out of the 189 defamation cases 97 were
of digital defamation, this constitutes of almost 51.3% of the total cases. It was further found
that of all the cases only 21% plaintiffs could be considered as public figures and about 25.9%
of the defendants were media companies. The success of plaintiffs varied between 27.3% and
43.3% in the years. Further studies found that in the period of five years there were about 16
cases that involved facebook posts, 20 involving emails, 4 of tweets and 2 involving text
messages.
Defamation is an area where good practices in confidentiality and information handling
will help to protect both clients and workers (Kennedy, Richards & Leiman, 2016).
Good practices related to confidentiality and information handling include collecting and
acquiring of personal information, recording and storing informations, permitting or denying
access to information. Professionals in human services are responsible under the Code of Ethics
(2016) to safeguard the confidentiality of client’s informations. Maintaining confidentiality
require all the data of the client to be securely stored, not disclosing the data without the client’s
2CRIMINAL LAW
permission, not discussing about client’s medical data with others without the client’s consent.
Although absolute confidentiality is considered to be a myth in human services work as there are
many legal obligations to access information about clients such as when the health of a minor is
at risk, confession of crime by the client, when the client is suicidal, when someone needs to be
protected from the client. Apart from legal obligations there are risks of deliberate or inadvertent
data breaches. Not only private individuals but businesses also have potential risks in regard to
privacy and confidentiality such risks include copyright infringement, misleading conduct,
breach of privacy and confidentiality and defamation. In addition to this a human service
personnel’s duty is to make sure that the client records are clear, precise, complete,
contemporaneous, legible, objective and unaltered. Apart from this points like subjective data,
objective data, assessment and plan should be kept in mind while preparing client data. There are
many advantages of keeping client details including encouraging comprehensive records,
reducing unnecessary documentation, assisting in the organisation of the notes, saving time, and
facilitating rapid and easy retrieval of information from the record. The disadvantages of
recording client data include potential privacy and security issues, inaccurate information,
frightening patients, malpractice liability.
There had been many cases that pointed out the negligency of the human services. In TC
Sabatino v New South Wales [2001] NSWCA 380, the plaintiff argued that he would not have
suffered sexual and physical abuse by his tutor while in the care of his mother if the Department
of Youth and Community Services had properly followed up notifications made to them about
him. In the case D v East Berkshire Community NHS Trust [2004] 2 WLR a duty was owed to
the child taken into care after a wrongful accusation that she had been sexually abused by her
father. A significant Australian child protection case is that of SB v New South Wales (2004) 13
permission, not discussing about client’s medical data with others without the client’s consent.
Although absolute confidentiality is considered to be a myth in human services work as there are
many legal obligations to access information about clients such as when the health of a minor is
at risk, confession of crime by the client, when the client is suicidal, when someone needs to be
protected from the client. Apart from legal obligations there are risks of deliberate or inadvertent
data breaches. Not only private individuals but businesses also have potential risks in regard to
privacy and confidentiality such risks include copyright infringement, misleading conduct,
breach of privacy and confidentiality and defamation. In addition to this a human service
personnel’s duty is to make sure that the client records are clear, precise, complete,
contemporaneous, legible, objective and unaltered. Apart from this points like subjective data,
objective data, assessment and plan should be kept in mind while preparing client data. There are
many advantages of keeping client details including encouraging comprehensive records,
reducing unnecessary documentation, assisting in the organisation of the notes, saving time, and
facilitating rapid and easy retrieval of information from the record. The disadvantages of
recording client data include potential privacy and security issues, inaccurate information,
frightening patients, malpractice liability.
There had been many cases that pointed out the negligency of the human services. In TC
Sabatino v New South Wales [2001] NSWCA 380, the plaintiff argued that he would not have
suffered sexual and physical abuse by his tutor while in the care of his mother if the Department
of Youth and Community Services had properly followed up notifications made to them about
him. In the case D v East Berkshire Community NHS Trust [2004] 2 WLR a duty was owed to
the child taken into care after a wrongful accusation that she had been sexually abused by her
father. A significant Australian child protection case is that of SB v New South Wales (2004) 13
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