I merely shared a defamatory statement made by someone else, am i liable for Defamation?



 WELL YES!

A republication of a defamatory statement is also considered to be defamatory.


In the case of YB Hj Khalid bin Abdul Samad v Datuk Aziz bin Isham & Anor [2012] 7 MLJ 301, the High Court quoted Gatley on Libel and Slander (8th Ed), at p 117 which states that

"every republication of a libel is a new libel and each publisher is answerable for his act to the same extent as if the calumny originated with him".

Accordingly, every repost or share of a defamatory statement is considered a new publication because those who do so are deemed to have approved, endorsed or repeated the same.

This position was reiterated in the recent Court of Appeal case of Raja Syahrir bin Abu Bakar & Anor v Manjeet Singh Dhillon and other appeals [2019] MLJU 75.

Therefore please be careful with what you share in social media as this can land you in very expensive litigation.

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