Cases

McKeith v News Group Newspapers Ltd

Facts

The Claimant complained that an article in The Sun alleged that she had dishonestly claimed to have a genuine nutritionist degree when in fact she had purchased it off-the shelf from a worthless US college ("the deceitful doctorate allegation"). The article also referred to controversy over the merits of her nutritional advice. The Defendant sought to justify both the deceitful doctorate allegation and the nutritional advice allegation, as well as raising a Reynolds defence. The Claimant sought to strike out that part of the justification which related to the nutritional advice since she admitted that there was always room for debate amongst experts on nutritional advice, and that an open-ended enquiry into nutritional theories should be disallowed on case management grounds. The Claimant also sought to strike out the Reynolds plea as having no realistic prospect of success.

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