A question arose under the section as to whether a news piece was a fair and accurate report of proceedings at a local public enquiry. The judge had ruled that no reasonable jury properly directed could conclude that the words complained of were other than a fair and accurate report of the proceedings.
Held: This had been the correct test, but the court was not persuaded that the jury could not attach decisive weight to any of the plaintiff’s points or to those points cumulatively. The question was whether, if the issue were left to the jury and the jury found for the plaintiffs, that verdict would be set aside as perverse. He did not think it would.
Judges:
Bingham LJ
Citations:
[1991] 1 QB 88
Statutes:
Citing:
Cited – Adam v Ward HL 1917
The plaintiff, Major Adam MP, falsely attacked General Scobell in a speech in the House of Commons, thus bringing his charge into the national arena. The Army Council investigated the charge, rejected it and directed their secretary, Sir E Ward, the . .
Cited by:
Cited – Alexander v Arts Council of Wales CA 9-Apr-2001
In a defamation action, where the judge considered that, taken at their highest, the allegations made by the claimant would be insufficient to establish the claim, he could grant summary judgment for the defence. If the judge considered that a . .
Cited – Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd and others HL 28-Oct-1999
Fair Coment on Political Activities
The defendant newspaper had published articles wrongly accusing the claimant, the former Prime Minister of Ireland of duplicity. The paper now appealed, saying that it should have had available to it a defence of qualified privilege because of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Defamation
Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.194323