1. Nora Kirrane

2.  Defamation  Defamation is the false accusation or statement that is harmful to someone’s reputation.

3.  Slander  Slander is the spoken form of defamation.

4.  Libel  Libel is the written form of defamation.

5.  A defamatory statement does not need to name a person, it just has to suggest a person by their profession, location, connections etc. Example A former Garda commissioner was awarded £30,000 in damages for the use of an image of his ear on the broadcast of a TV program about corruption.

6.  Example of a defamatory case in Ireland: On a RTE broadcast of Prime Time on May 23 rd 2011, a priest was wrongly accused of sexually abusing a teenager and fathering a child. The amount of damages was not disclosed but RTE has agreed to pay compensatory damage and aggravated damage to the priest.