Where a defamation plaintiff relies on publication in a foreign country but neither party pleads the foreign law, the forum court will apply local law on the presumption that foreign law is the same as local law. A person who provides the details of a defamatory story to a newspaper is a publisher for defamation purposes even if they did not write the published article. The cultural significance of defamatory allegations in a foreign country is relevant to general damages as part of the nature of the defamation, not as a separate ground for aggravated damages. A defendant's continuing refusal to apologise or retract, combined with repeated attempts to justify that refusal, can found an award of aggravated damages as conduct increasing the plaintiff's hurt.
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