Cases

Jameel & Another v Times Newspapers Ltd (CA)

Comment

The judgment of Sedley LJ is notable for the following: (1) his encouragement of a new practice whereby claimants should set out alternative meanings in their pleadings (explicitly endorsed by Longmore LJ ); (2) his tentative - and obiter - view on what he regarded as a question left unresolved by the CA in Bennett v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2002] EMLR 860, viz. whether it is right to allow a defendant to justify a level 3 meaning by reference only to the bare fact of assertions made by others. As he put it at para. 30, that would 'place a premium upon formulating slurs as level (iii) allegations and defending them unembarrassed by the otherwise general restraint on repeating the allegations of others.'

Areas of work

Defamation
Media Law

Also