(Court of Appeal of New South Wales) A radio broadcast dwelled at some length upon rumours concerning Ms Morosi (describing her as ‘the most notorious women’s name in the country’), but then went on to say that there was no truth in any of these claims.
Held: Applying the bane and antidote rule, the broadcast was defamatory. Samuels JA noted: ‘I do not doubt that there are occasions when a publication which seeks to refute a calumny which it expressly states may be held incapable of conveying any defamatory meaning. Bik v Mirror Newspaper Ltd is an example. But such cases must be comparatively rare . . in a case such as this the material already contains a defamatory imputation; and the inquiry is whether that effect is overcome by contextual matter of an emollient kind so as to eradicate the hurt and render the whole publication harmless.’
Samuels JA
[1980] 2 NSWLR 418
Australia
Cited by:
Cited – Cruise and Another v Express Newspapers Plc and Another CA 22-Jul-1998
The Court of Appeal should always be reluctant to reverse an interlocutory finding of a judge at first instance that the words alleged to be libellous are capable of bearing the defamatory meaning alleged. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 10 October 2021; Ref: scu.441575