9 Apr 2014
KARAM v PARKER & OR [2014] NZHC 737
- Citation
- [2014] NZHC 737
- Court
- High Court
Court held that Parker, as a Facebook group administrator with editorial powers and as creator/operator of the Counterspin site, was a publisher of the complained posts and could not rely on innocent dissemination under s21; many of the impugned statements were defamatory of Karam; honest opinion succeeded for some statements where adequate factual basis was indicated but failed for numerous statements that asserted false facts or lacked factual foundation; qualified privilege did not apply to the general-public online fora and would in any event have been rebutted because the defendants took…