Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The section relates to it being a defence to defamation to give a fair report of proceedings or judgments of courts in this State or in the North of our country. It extends this protection to the courts of any state, essentially. There is a certain practicality to this, particularly in the context of media essentially having become internationalised. I would appreciate it, however, if the Minister could speak to whether he believes that extending this to any state is practical or perhaps even fair and whether he has a fear that there is a risk that this would effectively lower the bar. Say, for example, a person fails in a defamation case that might be rightly taken in the United States. The United States has a much higher bar to get over in terms of defamation. Are we then to say that repeating those defamatory statements, which would have been considered to have been defamatory in the first place, in Ireland is to be facilitated because of that previous decision, if I am making the question clear? I appreciate what the Minister is trying to do in terms of being practical in a modern context but has he given consideration as to whether the appropriate response would effectively facilitate what may in fact be defamatory statements under Irish law because they were not found to be defamatory in another law? I would appreciate the Minister's thoughts on that.

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