Law lecture 4 - qualified privilege

This lecture started well, what with several electrical bugs and Chris ripping the phone off the wall. This combined with learning that everything on the front page of the sun, with the exception of the voucher for Tesco, was an example of libel, made for the start of a good lecture. This is apparently why the Sun is so popular, because it is crammed full of libel, people apparently read it to see what they can get away with printing. The most prominent of this was a picture of Adele with the caption “I’m common as much says Adele”, this is obviously libellous and potentially cruel to Adele but the Sun has all bases covered on the libel front. This is because the statement is comment, and as we learned in the last blog post comment, i.e. rudeness, is good! However, one thing that should be pointed out is that malice is transferrable; you cannot print a malicious, libellous quote and then go for the defence that since it’s a quote you didn’t say it and are therefore not guilty. By printing the quote, you own it and all the ramifications that come from printing it.

                You can print anything however, if it is protected by qualified privilege, in order to be under qualified privilege something must be either a) said in court, under oath b) a sworn statement such as an affidavit c) said in parliament and d) local government meetings and meetings of pressure groups.  You also have qualified privilege if a subject has gone into any process of judgement, even if it’s only a hearing, however you MUST include a report of the person denying the matter (if indeed they do). By not reporting this you will lose your qualified privilege. Apparently an affidavit is also a good way of finding out if someone is lying to you, by asking if they’d be willing to sign a sworn statement; that if they have lied would land them in prison; you’ll be surprised by how quickly they’ll change their story. With Common Law Qualified Privilege, the key is whether the information gathered would be in the public interest. Statutory qualified privilege is the privilege that applies to the courtroom; the judge wants immediate publication with this because it should be as if the public are sitting in the gallery watching the case unfold. This leads to the whole FAST, FAIR AND ACCURATE!!