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Lessons Learned From Precedent Setting Facebook Slander Case
posted (January 16, 2019)

Yesterday we told you about the landmark ruling in favor of businessman Mark King. The ruling saw activist Moses Sulph slapped with a hefty fine of $30 thousand for a simple Facebook post. While King has spoken to us at length regarding his decision to take the matter to court in first place, today we got a chance to speak with his attorneys, the legal minds that saw the case through to the end. Having gotten a favorable ruling yesterday, attorney Steve Perrera told us today that it wasn't so much that they won but rather that the defendants failed to establish proof of fair-comment.

Steve Perrera - Attorney for Claimant
"What the defendant failed to do and what they didn't recognize is that again if you say something about someone, you need to prove that is the case and that's where the defence of justification comes in. Now if someone tells you something before you repeat it, you must ensure that you have the sufficient facts and proof. So for example, if it were and he tried, the defendant tried to provide or to present that information and to present those facts by bringing those individuals to court; however even after bringing individuals to court to testify on his behalf and in support of his case, they too failed to provide sufficient evidence to the court to substantiated the information that they had supposedly informed Mr. Sulph with and as such, Mr Sulph should not have relied on that unless he had concrete proof, something very viable to substantiate the claims being made by these individuals for him to speak on their behalf and to repeat it."

This evening we got in touch with Moses Sulph who, by all indications is not willing to through in the towel. He is calling for a press briefing tomorrow morning. We reached out to him to ask if he will be appealing the decision but he said he'll reserve comment until tomorrow's press briefing. 

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