Online forum posts using extremely vulgar and abusive language may nonetheless convey defamatory imputations where they make serious allegations about a person's professional ethics and conduct. The defence of qualified privilege is generally unavailable for defamatory material published on a publicly accessible website, and the defence of fair comment requires the factual basis for opinions to be sufficiently identified in the publication or to be notorious. A salacious interest by the public in a subject does not constitute a matter of public interest for the purposes of statutory qualified privilege under s 139A of the Civil Law (Wrongs) Act 2002 (ACT). Where pre-judgment interest accrues over a lengthy period, trial judges should separately articulate the damages award and the interest component.
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