A new lease of life for qualified privilege defence.
The decision in the libel action Kearns v Bar Council has given a new lease of life to the qualified privilege defence and is welcome news for professional bodies, regulators, local authorities, and for their publishers and insurers, say Tim Smith and Simon Hilditch.
Qualified privilege is a public interest defence, the rationale forwhich is perhaps best set out by Lord Diplock in the case of Horrocks v
Low (1975) as "the public interest in permitting men to
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