Privilege, And This Time We Mean It

In 1999, the House of Lords in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Limited recognized a privilege defence for public interest journalism. Liberalising the law doesn’t always achieve the desired effect, however, and in the more recent Jameel v Wall Street Journal their Lordships restated the principle. Defamation practitioner Adam Speker of 5 Raymond Buildings explains the background and where we are now

The journalist and one time libel litigant Adam Raphael ended on a pessimistic note his 1989 book, My Learned Friends, An Insider’s View of the Jeffrey Archer Case and other Notorious Libel Actions. He wrote:

‘The scene is thus set for many more years of wrangling and many more libel millionaires. But who really benefits? Neither the public nor the press. Neither plaintiffs nor defendants. Ogden Nash got it right: ‘Professional people have no cares. Whatever happened they get theirs’.’