Truth and responsibility : paper for Perth PEN Conference, Feb-Mar 1991

In this paper John McLaren discusses defamation and the traditional defences against charges of defamation based on premises that the offensive statement is true and that it is in the public interest to make it known. He claims that both these defences are inappropriate. In the first place, the defence of truth is not available to writers of fiction who are unfortunate enough to write of character who can be identified. But more importantly, truth itself is a slippery concept, and it certainly cannot be identified with factual accuracy