Hawrami v Journalism Development Network, Inc. and others [2024] EWHC 2194 (KB)
Case background
In this case, the Kings Bench Division ruled in favour of the claimant’s application for summary judgment that sought the dismissal of the Defendant’s defence of qualified privilege pursuant to section 15 of the Defamation Act 1996 (Act).
On 19 May 2022, the Claimant, Dr Ashti Hawrami issued a libel claim against the defendants who published the online article, ‘The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Oilman in Iraq’ (Article). The first defendant was a website operator and the second and third defendants were journalists.
What is Libel?
Libel refers to statements made in a permanent form. This includes, but is not limited to: writing, TV and Radio broadcasts, social media posts and in this case an online article.
For more details on Defamation and its key principles, please see our previous blog.
The Claimant alleged that the Article contained defamatory statements about the Claimant’s professional conduct. The Defendant’s denied that the Article contained any defamatory statements and pleaded the defence of qualified privilege pursuant to section 15 of the Act as well as the defence of publication on a matter of public interest pursuant to section 4 of the Defamation Act 2013.
The defence of qualified privilege was on the basis that the Article was a fair and accurate report of the Excalibur proceedings [2013] EWHC 2767 (Comm) and as such was protected by section 15(1) of the Act.
Section 15(1) of the Act states:
“(1) The publication of any report or other statement mentioned in Schedule 1 to this Act is privileged unless the publication is shown to be made with malice, subject as follows.”
The paragraphs of Schedule 1 of the Act relied upon in the defendants’ defence were:
“2. A fair and accurate report of proceedings in public before a court anywhere in the world…
- A fair and accurate copy of or extract from any register or other document required by law to be open to public inspection.”
On 13 February 2023, in response to the Defendant’s defence, the Claimant issued an application for a summary judgment seeking to dismiss the defence of qualified privilege. The Claimant argued that the Defendants had no real prospect of establishing that the Article was a fair and accurate report of proceedings, as the Excalibur proceedings did not include any defamatory meanings. Therefore, if the Article was held to include defamatory meanings, it could not have been a fair and accurate report of proceedings, which would mean the defence of qualified privilege does not apply.
On 2 June and 11 December 2023, Master Dagnall heard and dismissed the summary judgment application save for in respect of two parts of the Article which were held to not be protected by qualified privilege.
As it was not part of the Claimant’s case that the Defendants published the Article with malice and it was confirmed they did not plan to present witness evidence on the issue of whether the Article was of public interest and/or whether its publication was for the public benefit pursuant to s.15(3) of the Act, Master Dagnall ordered that the key issues for the Court to determine were:
- Whether and to what extent the author of the Article could rely upon the defence of qualified privilege; and
- What was the natural and ordinary meaning of the Article.
Upon review of all versions of the Article, the Court held that although portions of the Article reported upon the Excalibur proceedings accurately, the Article also contained considerable inaccuracies and embellishments all of which contributed to the Article not satisfying the requirement of quality of fairness needed to be met to rely upon the defence of qualified privilege as per the Act.
Regarding the natural and ordinary meaning of the Article and words therein, the Court held that there were three defamatory meanings aimed towards the Claimant. As such, the Defendants defence of qualified privilege failed.
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