Public Interest Does Not Trump Responsible Journalism

The Court of Appeal decision handed down earlier this week in Flood v Times Newspapers Ltd has landed a telling blow on attempts to erode the law's insistence on compliance with the highest ethical standards of journalism.

In 2006, the Times published an article detailing allegations that a police officer had accepted bribes in exchange for sensitive information.  The officer sued and the Times ran a qualified privilege defence. This allows the publication of matters of public interest (even though they are wrong) provided that the journalist has followed good practice in trying to check out the allegations. In essence, the judge at first instance had accepted the Times' argument that the public interest in knowing that very serious allegations had been made against a police officer was so important that it trumped the journalist's obligation to verify the facts, even though the journalist had added detail that would tend to make the reader believe they were true.