Overview
The mainstream media industry has radically changed and continues to adapt to 21st-Century modes of communications. The Internet and social media have shattered our traditional media and opened the floodgates for potential defamatory statements and invasions of privacy that can cause devastating damage to individuals and businesses.
At Gowling WLG, our counsel have appeared in high-profile cyber-libel cases in trials and before the appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. As online publications pose many legal issues yet to be resolved by the courts or the legislatures, we provide cutting-edge advice on these concerns.
We also have extensive experience in traditional libel cases, where we've have acted for both plaintiffs and defendants, as well as in pre-publication and pre-broadcast advice for our national and local media clients.
Our media law litigators have successfully argued precedent-setting freedom of the press decisions under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. On behalf of our media clients, provisions of statutes have been declared unconstitutional infringements of section 2(b) of the Charter that guarantees freedom of the press, non-publication orders have been set aside, search warrants have been quashed as an abuse of process, production orders challenged, and court files unsealed.
Access to government information enjoys quasi-constitutional status and is an important business tool to obtain information about government and competitors. We have in-depth experience in seeking government information, as well as in defending third parties who need to protect their information from disclosure pursuant to exemptions mandated by the applicable legislation.
Members of our Defamation & Media Law Group are recognized by prestigious publications such as The Best Lawyers in Canada and Lexpert for their top-tier media and defamation law expertise.
Learn more
To learn more about how we can help you with your defamation or media law matter, please contact any member of our team.
