Media Law 3

Libel defences

To be found guily of Libel you must have done these three things;

.Defamation

.Identification

.Publication.

To defame someone what you said must have done one of the following:

. exposed him to hatred, ridicule, or contempt

.caused him to be shunned or avoided

.lower him in the estimation of right thinking members of society generally

.disparage him in his business, trade, office or profession.

Identifying is simply naming someone. This can be done accidently however, you must be careful not to name some facts that could lead to the identification of some body.

Publication is to one or more person. So a blog can be classed as publcation, it isn't just professionals that can get in trouble!

The defences against Libel are as follows;

Justification - basically to avoid any legal action you must simply prove that it is true such as calling someone a murderer if they have been convicted of it, and you are sorted!

Comment - Your personal opinion. It can be used as a defence as long as there is no malice and it has to be an opinion based on fact. For example you can say that John Terry is not that good at football, but you can't say he is rubbish at making pizza, because you probably haven't tried any of his pizza...I would of thought.

Qualified Privilege - The two types are; Common law Q.P. and Statutory Q.P.

Qualified;

Means you are above the law; a judge has absolute privilege in court. Also anything said in parliament is covered by Q.P.

As a journalist has Q.P. but it is limited. You can report what is said in court but it must be fast accurate and fair. This means it must be published as soon as possible and not sat on for weeks, it must be accurate to every detail and fair, not bias or anything of that sort.

You must include their plea and that the case is continuing.

Common law Q.P.

Some people should be allowed to say defamatory things for the common convenience of society.

For example a case of a soldier who shot and killed youths in Northern Ireland and got convicted of murder. Campaign groups to free him called the prosecuting IRA terrorists, they were allowed to say this for the common convenience of society.

The 10 point test was set out to give journalists a guideline when reporting cases.

1. The serious of the allegation

2. The nature of the information

3. The source of informtion

4. The steps taken to verify the information

5. The status of the information

6. Urgency of matter

7. Whether comment was sought from the claimant

8. Whether the article contained the fist of the claimants side of the story

9. The tone of the article

10. The circumstances of the publication.