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Summary NCTJ media law and regulation defamation defences
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summaries of the defamation defences in NCTJ media law and regulation exam content.
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Law and regulationSeminar 2 prep
Defamation 2 – defences
Reading – chapter 22
Example cases:
- Richard Burgon v News Group newspapers 2019. Labour Mp Richard Burgon sued
The Sun due the publication of article relating him the Nazi sympathisers. Mr Justic
Dingemans found that the evidence did not show that the newspaper’s imputation
was true, the information publishes was also found to be innacurate.
- Mitchell v Newsgroup newspapers and Mitchell v Rowland – 2014. Mitchell sued The
Sun over an article which said he had called police officers ‘fucking plebs’ during a
dispute in 2012. There was a high court defamation trial which also considered a
defamation action brough against him by PC Rowland on the basis that Mr Mithcell
accused him of lying about the incident. The judge ruled o the balance of
probabilities that it was substantially true that Mr Mitchell had used the abusive
phrase or similar that it had the same meaning, The Sun and PC Rowland won the
case.
- Chase v News Group Newspapers Ltd – 2002. The Sun newspaper paid £100,000 in
damages to nurse Elaine Chase for a story headlined ‘Nurse is probed over 18
deaths’. Police concluded that there were no grounds to suspect her of an offence.
- The requirements of section 3 of the 2013 act reflect the decision of the supreme
court in Spiller and another vs Joseph and others 2010 that the comment ‘must
explicitly or implicitly indicate, at least in general terms, the facts on which it was
based.
- Bennet v Newsquest 2006, Mr Justicce Eady pointed out that a newspaper report of
a criminal case , which was the subject of a defamation case action contained
innacuracies, then said;
‘the report must be fair overall…not give a misleading impression. Innacuraices will
not defeat privilege. Omissions will deprive a report of a privilege if they create a
fasle impression of what took place or if they result in the suppression of the case or
part of the case of one side, while giving the other’.
- Law firm McCarten Turkington Breen sued The Times over its report of a press
conference. A jury awarded the firm £145,000 in damages but on appeal Lord
Bingham said ‘a meeting is public if those who organise it or arrange it open it to the
public or, by issuing a general invitation to the press, manifest an intention or desire
that the proceedings of the meeting should be communicated to a wider public.
Journalists could be regarded as ‘the eyes and ears of the public’.
- In 2009, Mr Justice Eady ruled that the Croydon guardian was not liable as the
publisher for comments posted on its website by others. The newspaper was
protected by the regulation 19 defence because it had not had actual knowledge of
the alleged unlawful activity or information until the man complained, it had then
removed the material including the comments as soon as it became aware of the
complaint.
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