NSW Am I Allowed to Publish Concerns Notice Under Defamation Law?

[Orgioah]

I've recently received a concerns notice regarding an alleged defamatory publication of mine. Without going into too much detail, the claims made in the concerns notice on defamation are completely false, and I have not actually published anything defamatory. The claims made are in relation to information I've published that's publicly available and not subject to and proceedings. Much of the source material has been produced by the party that has contacted me.

In my opinion, the threats that have been made to intimidate more than anything else. The concerns notice advises me of the costs and risks associated with defending their allegations before going on to say if I retract the publication, apologise, and cease from further publications, they will drop the whole thing. Given the nature of the matter, I intend on "calling their bluff" as such and am fully prepared and have the resources to defend the allegations in court.

I would like to publicise the threats that have been made against me. However, the notice says "Private and Confidential. Not for Publication" at the top on the letterhead. I've done a fair bit of reading on what my obligations are and it seems to be a fairly grey area. Personally, I don't believe I have an obligation to not publicise threats that are essentially frivolous.

I have three questions -

Firstly, am I under an obligation to not publicise these letters? They only contain the threats and proposed resolution?

Secondly, if I am, am I allowed to publish a re-worded version (essentially like a re-enactment, but written)

Lastly, if I am, what are potential consequences of doing so regardless? (I understand if you can't say too much on this one!)

Thank you in advance for your assistance, much appreciated.

 

[Rod]

This is tough to answer without knowing what you published, and you can't re-publish here either without potentially defaming again.

Re-publishment of others' remarks can be defamatory and you can be liable for publication of those remarks.

Now while remarks may be defamatory, some defences are available to you but without seeing the actual words and other material behind them it is impossible to give any kind of accurate advice.

 

[sammy01]

What do you hope to achieve by publishing any of it?

Definitely publishing your version of a recount is poor form. Seems to me you're just trying to provoke the other party for no other reason that for a bit of fun?

BTW when you say publish? What form? There are some pretty strict laws

So forget defamation - You could be committing a crime