The right of reply explained

What the right covers

The right of reply is a legal route for a person to answer facts published about them, in the same medium that published them. The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers set out minimum rules in Resolution (74) 26 on 2 July 1974. It says any natural or legal person or body mentioned in a medium, about whom allegedly inaccurate facts were made public, may reply to correct the facts concerning that person or body ¹.

The right is about facts. The 1974 rules let national law allow a medium to refuse a reply that goes beyond correcting the challenged facts or is longer than needed to correct them ¹. A reply is the affected person's own text. It is not a correction written by the publisher.

The European minimum rules

The 1974 resolution says the medium must publish the reply at the person's request, without undue delay and, as far as possible, with the same prominence as the original item ¹. Disputes go to a tribunal that can order immediate publication ¹.

Recommendation Rec(2004)16, adopted on 15 December 2004, carried these rules into the new media environment, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory's IRIS summary. It says publication should be free of charge and that a request should come within a reasonably short time. Where a reply is granted and the original stays in an electronic archive, the two should be linked if possible ².

• Refusal ground in the 1974 text: the request came too late ¹
• Refusal ground: the reply is longer than needed or goes beyond the facts ¹
• Refusal ground: the reply would be a punishable offence or harm a third party's protected interests ¹
• Refusal ground in the 2004 text: the reply is in a different language from the original ²
• Refusal ground in the 2004 text: the item was a truthful report on sessions of public authorities or courts ²

Television in the European Union

Article 28 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive requires a right of reply or equivalent remedy for anyone, regardless of nationality, whose reputation or legitimate interests were harmed by false statements of fact in a television programme ³. It applies to all broadcasters under a member state's jurisdiction. A request may be rejected if the reply is not justified, would involve a punishable act, would expose the broadcaster to civil liability or would breach standards of public decency. Disputes must be open to judicial review ³.

How national laws set the details

National laws turn the principles into deadlines. In France, article 13 of the press law of 29 July 1881 lets any person named or designated in a periodical demand a reply. A daily must insert it within three days of receipt, and the reply is free ⁴. In Bavaria, a directly affected person or authority can demand a Gegendarstellung, limited to factual statements and printed without undue delay ⁵. In Spain, a person must send a rectification within seven calendar days, and the outlet must publish it within three days ⁶.

Where there is no statutory right

Not every country imposes a reply duty on the press. In Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo, decided on 25 June 1974, the US Supreme Court held that Florida Statute section 104.38, which made newspapers print a political candidate's reply to attacks, violated the First Amendment's guarantee of a free press ⁷. In places without such a statute, any reply depends on editorial codes and on how news organisations seek comment.