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The Defamation Bill 2006 (see IRIS 2006-9: 13) was finally passed on 10 July 2009. It will be known as the Defamation Act 2009 and is due to come into effect in October. The Act repeals the 1961 Defamation Act and updates the law in a number of respects. The historically separate torts of libel and slander become a single tort of defamation, which is defined in the Act. The tort of defamation involves the publication “by any means” of a defamatory statement, thus extending to new media. The period of limitation for bringing an action is shortened from six years to one. A new defence of fair and...

The Broadcasting Act 2009 is a major piece of legislation, which overhauls Irish broadcasting law. It consolidates all previous content-related legislation in a single Act, comprising 185 sections, which are divided into 14 Parts, and two schedules. It sets the regulatory framework for broadcasting services in Ireland. The definitions of terms such as “broadcasting service” are updated (s.2, Part 1). A new regulator, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) is established. It replaces the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC), which becomes...

In July the Communications (Retention of Data) Bill 2009 was published. Its main purpose is to give effect to Directive 2006/24/EC on the retention of data. The Bill will allow service providers to retain fixed and mobile telephone data for a period of two years and Internet (access, e-mail and telephone) data for one year. Previously the period in respect of fixed and mobile telephony was three years. Section 2 makes clear that the Bill does not apply to content, thus giving effect to Article 1.2 of the Directive. The Data Protection Commissioner is designated as the national supervisory authority...

In November 2008, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources published a report on the digital terrestrial television trials conducted in 2006. One of the key decisions from the trials was to use MPEG 4, the technology chosen in most countries. Under the Broadcasting (Amendment) Act 2007 (see IRIS 2007-4: 16), RTÉ, the public service broadcaster, is required to provide a digital television service offering access to the Irish national channels (RTÉ, TG4 and TV3) on a free-to-air basis. RTÉ received its licence in 2008 and is expected to launch its service on a phased basis from...

In April 2009, the Joint Oireachtas (Parliament) Committee on the Constitution, issued a report on the referendum procedure prescribed by Articles 46 and 47 of the Irish Constitution. In particular, the Committee examined the current arrangements whereby information is conveyed to the public by the broadcast media during referendum campaigns. The current arrangements followed a Supreme Court decision in Coughlan v. the Broadcasting Complaints Commission in 2000 (see IRIS 2000-2: 7). As a result of that decision, broadcasters believed they were required to allocate equal airtime to the “yes” and...