Cases

Malik v Newspost Ltd & Ors

Held

Holding that the defence was not available to the Ds:

Neither publication could remotely be classified as investigative journalism of the type Reynolds privilege was intended to protect, but in some circumstances the nature of the information itself and the public interest in receiving it might justify the protection of privilege, no matter the means by which the information is conveyed. Here the subject matter was clearly in the public interest. However, D3 was not reporting the allegations but asserting them directly and there was no authority to support the proposition that he could do so to the world at large without having to justify them. D1 and 2's failure to take certain steps such as obtaining a response from C or making other corroborative checks was fatal to their reliance on any public interest defence.

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