Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, 2018, News Reporting and Quotation Exceptions
Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, 2018 (Act No. 4 of 2018), ss. 21-23
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force.
A snippet reproduction rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What this law does
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Section 22(1)-(2) provides that the copyright in a lecture, address, speech, or other similar public work is not infringed by its reproduction in the press or a broadcast for the purpose of information, and, separately, that copyright in an article published in a newspaper or periodical, or a broadcast, on a current economic, political, or religious topic is not infringed by reproduction in the press or in a broadcast or cable programme, provided the right of reproduction has not been expressly reserved and sufficient acknowledgement is given; neither exception applies where it conflicts with a normal exploitation of the work or unreasonably prejudices the copyright owner's legitimate interests (s. 22(3)).
Section 21 excuses fair dealing for the purposes of criticism or review of a work, or of reporting current events, subject to sufficient acknowledgement, except where the work is used to report current events by means of an audio-visual work, a sound recording, a broadcast, or a programme-carrying signal, and except that using a photograph to report current events is never fair dealing.
Section 23 excuses a quotation from a literary or musical work, including a quotation from an article in a journal that summarizes the work, where the quotation is compatible with fair practice, does not exceed the extent justified by the purpose, and is sufficiently acknowledged. The Act's neighbouring-rights provisions protect only performers, producers of sound recordings, and broadcasting organisations (ss.
53-60), not a print or online news publisher as such, so no publisher-side neighbouring right exists, and the Act contains no text-and-data-mining exception, no reference to hyperlinking or framing, and no compelled-bargaining mechanism.
Section 1(2) provides that the Act comes into operation on a date the Minister appoints by notice in the Gazette, and no such commencement notice has been located, so no commencement day is recorded even though the Act, having repealed and replaced the Copyright Act, 1912, is treated as the current law.
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