Cases

Galloway v Telegraph Group Ltd (QBD)

Held

(1) The Defendant had no duty to publish the articles in the manner in which they had done so. The articles suggested that the Claimant had been taking the money personally and this had not been put to him by the Defendant prior to publication. The Defendant’s reporting was not "neutral reportage". The Defendant had a duty to attempt to verify the contents of the documents. The defence of privilege had not been made out. (2) The defence of fair comment on a privilege report failed because the underlying report was not privileged. The fair comment defence based on the documents failed because the Defendant had not proved as true the basis for the comment. (3) Applying the presumption of falsity, damages of £150,000.

Also