Protection from Harassment Act 2014 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Actions and Orders
15A. Stop publication order
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A court may, on an application by the subject of an alleged false statement of fact (called in this section the relevant statement), make a stop publication order against any individual or entity (called in this section the respondent), if —
court
“court”, for the purposes of sections 12 and 13 and Division 2 of Part 3, means a District Court (including the Protection from Harassment Court) or a Family Court;
the court is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that —
the respondent has published the relevant statement; and (ii)the relevant statement is a false statement of fact; and
it is just and equitable in the circumstances to make the stop publication order.
A stop publication order may be made against a respondent even if the respondent does not know or have reason to believe that the relevant statement is false.
stop publication order
“stop publication order” means an order made under section 15A;
A stop publication order may require the respondent or any other individual or entity to stop publishing the relevant statement, and not to publish any similar statement, by a specified time.
entity
“entity” means any company or association or body of persons (whether corporate or unincorporate), but excludes any public agency;
In this section —
“specified” means specified in the stop publication order; and
the respondent or any other individual or entity does not publish a statement merely by doing any act for the purpose of, or that is incidental to, the provision of —
an internet intermediary service;
a telecommunication service; (iii)a service of giving the public access to the internet; or
a computing resource service.
To avoid doubt, in this section, a statement that is similar to the relevant statement includes a statement that is identical to the relevant statement.
statement
“statement” means any words (including abbreviations and initials), numbers, image (moving or otherwise), sounds, symbols or other representation, or a combination of any of these;