Checklist · Defamation & Media Law
Defences assessment checklist for a publisher facing a defamation complaint
Checklist for testing each statutory defence under the Defamation Act 2005 (NSW) against the imputations complained of: justification, contextual truth, privilege, public documents and fair report, public interest, honest opinion, digital intermediaries and innocent dissemination.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- New South Wales, Australia
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the 3 authorities it cites, for New South Wales and Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a publisher, journalist or platform receives a concerns notice or claim, to record for each imputation which defences are available, what evidence supports them and what is missing, before advising on the response or an offer to make amends.
Used for these tasks
- Build a defences checklist from the publication and the file
- Assess a concerns notice received and plan the response within the offer-to-make-amends window
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may organise the publication, the imputations the lawyer has settled and the file evidence into the defence table; the lawyer decides which defences are open and how strong they are.
AI may
- Lay out each imputation the lawyer has settled against each statutory defence in the table
- Link documents, notes and sources on file to the facts each defence needs, with references
- List evidence gaps for the lawyer to follow up
AI must not
- Must not formulate the imputations or decide what the matter conveys
- Must not assess whether a defence will succeed or whether an imputation is substantially true
- Must not disclose a confidential source's identity from the file in any output
The lawyer checks
- The imputations used are those complained of or pleaded, and any contextual imputations are properly identified
- Each defence element is matched to admissible evidence, with the onus on the defendant
- Public interest (s 29A) analysis considers the defendant's reasonable belief and the matters the court may take into account
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Defamation & Media Law
- Concerns notice under the uniform Defamation Acts (with UK letter-of-claim and NZ variants)
- Response to a concerns notice: further particulars notice, or letter declining to make an offer to make amends
- Deed of settlement and release for a defamation dispute, with agreed correction, apology and removal terms
- Offer to make amends in response to a concerns notice
- Serious harm evidence table (Defamation Act s 10A)
- Defamation claim assessment checklist for an aggrieved person: publication capture, serious harm, limitation and concerns notice timing
- Digital intermediary liability map for an online publication (Defamation Act s 31A)
- Pre-publication legal review checklist (including AI-generated text, images and quotes)
- Correction, clarification or apology for publication, with placement and prominence schedule
- Takedown demand for AI-generated deepfake or synthetic content (to poster or platform)
- Complaint notice to a digital intermediary (s 31A accessible complaints mechanism) with UK and US variants
- Newsroom and publisher generative AI and synthetic media policy
All precedents for Defamation & Media Law · Tasks and AI use in this area