What's the difference between defamatory and libel?

Defamatory


Definition:

  • (a.) Containing defamation; injurious to reputation; calumnious; slanderous; as, defamatory words; defamatory writings.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Both condemn the treatment of Ibrahim, whose supposed offence appears to have shifted over time, from fabricating a defamatory story to entering a home without permission to misleading an interviewee for an article that was never published.
  • (2) Mrs Trump has placed several news organizations on notice of her legal claims against them, including Daily Mail among others, for making false and defamatory statements about her supposedly having been an ‘escort’ in the 1990s.
  • (3) I can confirm that notice has been served due to a highly defamatory tweet.
  • (4) Murat, his friend Michaela Walczuch and IT consultant Sergey Malinka had all brought proceedings against the four newspaper groups over nearly 100 "seriously defamatory" articles.
  • (5) Three years later the House of Lords decided to allow the media to plead the Reynolds defence - which meant newspapers could print untrue and defamatory information if they could prove it was in the public interest to publish it and that it was the product of responsible journalism.
  • (6) A lawyer for Ford said the reports about the mayor smoking crack were false and defamatory.
  • (7) Any suggestion of impropriety is malicious and defamatory and will be treated as such,” said a spokesman.
  • (8) In a letter to Channel 4, they said that the depiction of Shia beliefs in The Qur'an, broadcast earlier this month, was "disappointing, misleading, even defamatory".
  • (9) Haji-Ioannou and his easyGroup had instigated a series of "increasingly personalised attacks", Rake declared , "involving a number of inaccurate and misleading statements, including inappropriate and defamatory assertions and innuendo".
  • (10) I am writing to Chris Bryant indicating that the relevant paragraph is both wrong and defamatory and asking him not to repeat it.
  • (11) It is understood Google has removed hundreds of references to the defamatory claims after requests from Mosley's solicitors.
  • (12) Websites will also be given greater protection from being sued if they help to identify those posting defamatory messages, under government plans.
  • (13) Bercow accepted an earlier offer to settle the matter after Tugendhat's ruling in May that a tweet posed by her was highly defamatory.
  • (14) Candy & Candy have asked me to put you on notice that they will instruct lawyers over anything written that is defamatory or incorrect,” Reading said.
  • (15) In a letter sent to Wallace, Tweed wrote that the politician made “an extremely serious, false and defamatory allegation” in a tweet.
  • (16) She left Rodríguez Lozano to live with Dr Atl in La Merced, causing a public scandal second in rumpus only to the scandal caused by their separation, two years later, which included loud public screaming, buckets of cold water thrown at each other, death threats, and defamatory pamphlets pasted on the doors of the ex-convent.
  • (17) The internet will become constructed entirely of two different sorts of untruth: contemporaneous unalloyed praise and posthumous defamatory hearsay.
  • (18) "The allegations published by the newspaper on 8 October 2010 are completely untrue and seriously defamatory of Lady Moore," Catherine Rhind, of Harbottle & Lewis, said in a statement in open court.
  • (19) In a statement, Ailes called Carlson’s suit “retaliatory for the network’s decision not to renew her contract, which was due to the fact that her disappointingly low ratings were dragging down the afternoon lineup … This defamatory lawsuit is not only offensive, it is wholly without merit and will be defended vigorously.” Ailes’s personal counsel and spokespeople for 21st Century Fox have not replied to requests for comment on the claim that his accusers now number more than 20.
  • (20) Instead, he chose to run a defamatory half-page advertisement in the local newspaper in Airlie beach that insinuated I was ‘on the take’ for pushing for the Abbot Point expansion,” Christensen wrote.

Libel


Definition:

  • (n.) A brief writing of any kind, esp. a declaration, bill, certificate, request, supplication, etc.
  • (n.) Any defamatory writing; a lampoon; a satire.
  • (n.) A malicious publication expressed either in print or in writing, or by pictures, effigies, or other signs, tending to expose another to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule. Such publication is indictable at common law.
  • (n.) The crime of issuing a malicious defamatory publication.
  • (n.) A written declaration or statement by the plaintiff of his cause of action, and of the relief he seeks.
  • (v. t.) To defame, or expose to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, by a writing, picture, sign, etc.; to lampoon.
  • (v. t.) To proceed against by filing a libel, particularly against a ship or goods.
  • (v. i.) To spread defamation, written or printed; -- with against.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Brett added companies should have to prove some financial damage – or the potential of financial damage – before they are allowed to launch a libel case.
  • (2) First, there are major vested interests, such as large corporations, foreign billionaires and libel lawyers, who will attempt to scupper reform.
  • (3) "In recent years, though, the increased threat of costly libel actions has begun to have a chilling effect on scientific and academic debate and investigative journalism."
  • (4) Aside from the fact that it is intemperate and inaccurate, it is also libelous.
  • (5) And there are plenty who think that, as our libel laws are cleaned up, smart lawyers are switching horses to privacy.
  • (6) The case, which had been going on for four years, became a cause celebre, one of a number that were used to spearhead a campaign for change to the libel laws by campaigners for freedom of speech.
  • (7) He stressed that the sister-in-law and her husband were not only accused of circulating libellously untrue stories but also of harassment of the wealthy financier.
  • (8) Polonsky is hoping to sue Lebedev for libel and is seeking damages for defamation, his lawyer Andrew Stephenson has said.
  • (9) Thousands who have confronted the possibility of a libel action have self-censored or backed down.
  • (10) He added that London remained the "libel capital of the world – the place where the rich and dodgy flock to keep their reputations intact".
  • (11) Newspapers have been lobbying hard to stave off a Leveson law of any kind, arguing that the press is already subject to laws ranging from libel to data protection and computer misuse acts to guard against illegal activities.
  • (12) Instead, NMT sued Wilmshurst in London, which has become the libel capital of the world.
  • (13) Priority has been given to applying sticking-plasters to libel law when urgent surgery is needed to regulate a tabloid newspaper industry that has been shown to have no regard for privacy or the criminal law.
  • (14) But Miller, in continuing to urge publishers to be "recognised" by the charter did refer to the "incentives", meaning a protection from the payment of legal costs for libel claimants (even if unsuccessful) and the imposition of exemplary damages (which would be very doubtful anyway).
  • (15) The inquiry originally looked as if it would be confined to the issue of "libel tourism", but it seems officials believed it would not be possible to restrict the inquiry in this way.
  • (16) His charge sheet includes numerous assaults (one against a waiter who served him the wrong dish of artichokes); jail time for libelling a fellow painter, Giovanni Baglione, by posting poems around Rome accusing him of plagiarism and calling him Giovanni Coglione (“Johnny Bollocks”); affray (a police report records Caravaggio’s response when asked how he came by a wound: “I wounded myself with my own sword when I fell down these stairs.
  • (17) The former Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell was a Jekyll and Hyde character who employed a mixture of charm and menace, his libel trial against the Sun newspaper over the Plebgate affair heard.
  • (18) In a letter to Hodge on Tuesday, Duncan also claimed that Hodge, the MP for Barking, had made “undoubtedly libellous assertions” about the tax affairs of the bank’s chief executive Stuart Gulliver.
  • (19) The libel laws have been long been considered to restrict free speech.
  • (20) What about the chilling effects of libel tourism and a system that both adds cost to stories and stifles freedom of expression?