The origins of the law relating to defamation, of which libel and slander is the twin

Components, date back as far as King Alfred the Great who, in the ninth century, decreed that
slanderers should have their tongues cut out. Although over the years The penalties imposed
upon those who transgress this branch of the civil law have become financial rather than
physical, the principles have remained virtually unchanged. The legal rationale was expressed
with great clarity by Justice Potter Stew art of the American Supreme Court in 1966 – “The
right of a man to the protection of his own reputation from unjustified invasion and wrongful
hurt reflects no more than our basic concept o