Section 17 — Publication of false material

(1)In this Act, “publication of false material” means —

(a)the publication of online material that contains or consists of a false statement of fact about a person (called in this section the victim); and

(b)that a reasonable person would conclude is likely to cause harm to the victim.

(2)The following apply for the purposes of ascertaining whether online material contains or consists of a statement of fact which bears a particular meaning:

(a)the statement is to be ascertained from a reasonable interpretation of the online material whether wholly or in part, and whether on its own or in the context in which it appears;

(b)there can be more than one reasonable interpretation of the online material;

(c)a statement of fact is a statement that a reasonable person seeing, hearing or otherwise perceiving it would consider to be a representation of fact.