Quoting parliament: what the law protects

Two different protections

The first protection covers the speaker in the chamber. Article 9 of the Bill of Rights states that the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament ¹. Australia's Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 declares that article 9 applies to the Commonwealth Parliament, and defines proceedings in Parliament to include all words spoken and acts done in the course of the business of a House or committee ⁶.

The second protection covers people who repeat or report what was said. That protection is narrower. It usually depends on the report being fair, accurate or substantially true, and it can be lost through malice ^2,37. A quote that is clipped so that it no longer fairly reflects the record may fall outside these rules.

United Kingdom

Schedule 1 to the Defamation Act 1996 lists statements with qualified privilege without explanation or contradiction ³. They include a fair and accurate report of proceedings in public of a legislature anywhere in the world, of a court anywhere in the world, and of an international organisation or international conference ³. The list includes a fair and accurate copy of or extract from matter published by or on the authority of a government or legislature anywhere in the world ³. Section 7 of the Defamation Act 2013 amended these provisions, including substituting public interest for public concern in section 15(3) of the 1996 Act ⁴.

The Parliamentary Papers Act 1840 adds older protection. A defendant sued over a copy of a parliamentary report, paper, votes or proceedings may lay the original and the copy before the court with an affidavit, and the court shall stay the proceedings ². Under section 3, in proceedings over an extract from or abstract of such a paper, the defendant may show it was published bona fide and without malice, and if the jury agrees a verdict of not guilty is entered ².

Canada

The Parliament of Canada Act follows the 1840 model. Section 7 lets a defendant sued over publication made by or under the authority of the Senate or House of Commons produce a certificate from the Speaker or Clerk, after 24 hours notice ⁵. Section 8 covers copies, with an affidavit verifying the original and the correctness of the copy ⁵. Section 9 covers extracts and abstracts, which may be shown to have been published in good faith and without malice ⁵.

Australia

Section 10 of the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 makes it a defence to a defamation action that the matter was published without any adoption by the defendant of its substance and was contained in a fair and accurate report of proceedings at a meeting of a House or a committee ⁶. The defence does not apply to matter published in breach of section 13, which bars disclosure of evidence taken in camera without authority ⁶.

Section 16(3) limits how proceedings can be used in court. Evidence or submissions may not be made for the purpose of questioning or relying on the truth, motive, intention or good faith of anything forming part of proceedings in Parliament, or of drawing inferences from them ⁶.

India

The Parliamentary Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act, 1977 provides that no person is liable to civil or criminal proceedings for publishing in a newspaper a substantially true report of proceedings of either House, with an exception where malice is proved ⁷. Matter that is not for the public good is not protected, and the Act extends to reports broadcast by wireless telegraphy ⁷.

Side by side

Committee evidence has its own rules. UK House of Commons guidance says written and oral evidence given formally to a select committee is protected by parliamentary privilege, but privilege does not apply to written submissions published before the committee publishes them ⁸.