Public Interest Defence For Newspapers Made Easier

The newspapers' favourite defence to a defamation claim is that, regardless of the truth of a published allegation, the publication was in the public interest. In 2001, in the seminal case of Reynolds v The Times, the House of Lords decided that newspapers could benefit from this defence, where the subject matter was of sufficient public importance and where the defendant had behaved responsibly as a journalist. Since that case, the lower courts have interpreted this in a restrictive manner, and newspapers have rarely succeeded with the defence. However, the House of Lords yesterday in Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe [2006] UKHL 44 tilted the balance back in the newspapers' favour, ruling that the defence had been interpreted too restrictively.