AAN News » Industry News
   

Canadian Court Rules in Favor of Washington Post in Bangoura Case

By AAN Staff
october 4, 2005  05:42 pm
The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that a Canadian trial court erred when it exercised jurisdiction over the Post Co. in a defamation suit based solely on the availability of an article in the archives of Washingtonpost.com. The article in question was published in 1997, when the Post had only seven subscribers in Ontario, and had subsequently been downloaded from the Post's archives once -- by the plaintiff’s lawyer. Moreover, the plaintiff lived in Africa when the article was published and didn't become a Canadian citizen until four years later. AAN joined a coalition of over 40 media organizations and advocacy groups that intervened in the case following the trial court ruling. According to the Post's counsel, if the ruling had been allowed to stand and had been followed by other courts, it would have meant that "any publisher, broadcaster or online news organization can be subjected to suit anywhere in the world based solely on the availability of its content on the Internet." Read more about Bangoura v. The Washington Post Co., here and here.