DEFINITION Defamation can be defined as the act of making a false statement about a person that is likely to damage their reputation in the community. In other words, defamation is the publication of a statement or words in that it tends to lower the person in the estimation of right- thinking members of society, generally by making society shun or avoid them. In simpler terms, defamation generally means the act of damaging someone’s reputation or livelihood. Defamation law is complicated because it has to strike a balance between freedom of speech and protecting people from lies that will ruin their reputation. Defamation covers slander and libel. Slander is a spoken defamatory statement and it is in a temporary form. Examples include oral defamatory statements made in speeches , radio broadcasts or on television. On the other hand , libel is a written defamatory statement and it is in a permanent form such as statements published in a book, blog or letter. In Malaysia, this is governed by the Defamation Act 1957.

ELEMENTS OF DEFAMATION
In order to prove defamation, a plaintiff must be able to satisfy the following criteria :

1. The statement must be defamatory
First and foremost, the statement must be defamatory. It is rather obvious that to be defamatory, the statement must damage or lower the plaintiff’s reputation in the eyes of a right-minded person or the statement can