Cases

Charleston & Smith v News Group Newspapers Ltd

Held

A claim for libel could not be founded on a headline or photograph in isolation from the related text. The question of whether an article was defamatory had to be answered by reference to the response of the ordinary, reasonable reader to the entire publication. However, the question of whether the text of an article or a disclaimer was sufficient to neutralise an otherwise defamatory headline or photograph was a matter for the jury. On the facts of the case, no reader could possibly have drawn the inference that the appellants could have been willing participants in the photographs either by posing for them or by giving consent for their faces to be superimposed on the bodies of others.

Also