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Curistan v Times Newspapers Ltd
Comment
The issue in this case is the extent to which a newspaper which adds further material to what would otherwise be a privileged report risks losing the defence. In Dingle v Associated Newspapers Ltd [1964] AC 371, 411 Lord Denning famously observed: "... if [the newspaper] adds its own spice and prints a story to the same effect as the parliamentary paper, and garnishes it and embellishes it with circumstantial detail, it goes beyond the privilege and becomes subject to the general law. None of its story on that occasion is privileged. It has 'put meat on the bones' and must answer for the whole joint." The extent to which a newspaper which does add "meat on the bones" can nevertheless retain privilege for the "bones" is relatively unexplored in authorities.