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40 1961

DEFAMATION ACT, 1961

PART I

Preliminary And General

Short title.

1. —This Act may be cited as the Defamation Act, 1961.

Interpretation generally.

2. —In this Act—

local authority”has the same meaning as in the Local Government Act, 1941 ;“newspaper” except in section 27, means any paper containing public news or observations thereon, or consisting wholly or mainly of advertisements, which is printed for sale and is published in the State or in Northern Ireland either periodically or in parts or numbers at intervals not exceeding thirty-six days;

proprietor”means, as well as the sole proprietor of any newspaper, in the case of a divided proprietorship, the persons who, as partners or otherwise, represent or are responsible for any share or interest in the newspaper as between themselves and the

persons in like manner representing or responsible for the other shares or interests therein, and no other person.

Commencement and proceedings affected.

3. —(1) This Act shall come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1962.

(2) Part III of this Act shall apply for the purposes of any proceedings begun after the commencement of this Act, whenever the cause of action arose, but shall not affect any proceedings commenced before the commencement of this Act.

Repeals.

4. —The enactments specified in the First Schedule to this Act Repeals, are hereby repealed.