Qualified Privilege
There are several situations where the defence of qualified privilege applies. Reports and remarks of Parliamentary proceedings, as well as reports of judicial proceedings attract qualified privilege. These have to be 'fair and accurate'; as Lord Denning stated in Associated Newspaper Ltd v Dingle, if the writer 'garnishes' and 'embellishes' such reports with any form of circumstantial evidence, the defence cannot apply. Additionally, where there is a mutual interest between two parties, statements deemed to be defamatory are protected where it can be proved there is a duty to impart them. The case of Watt v Longsdon exemplifies this principle, and the limitations of it. Here, the director of a company informed the chairman of alleged sexual misconduct involving Mr. Watt. This communication was deemed privilege, but the informing of such suspicion to the claimant's wife was not.
The defence has seen expansion recently in light of Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd, where the House of Lords - drawing principally on Lord Nicholls' judgement - established that the mass media could be entitled to the defence, where criteria of 'responsible journalism' (further expanded upon in Loutchansky v Times Newspapers Ltd) were met. This expansion was confirmed in the case of Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe, and has been described as giving newspapers protections similar to the US First Amendment.
See section 15 of, and Schedule 1 to, the Defamation Act 1996. See also section 1(5) of the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, section 121 of the Broadcasting Act 1996, section 79 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and section 72 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000.
Read more about this topic: English Defamation Law, Present Law, Defences
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