The defence of qualified privilege permits a person in a position of

authority Authority is commonly understood as the legitimate power of a person or group of other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' may be practiced by legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government,''The New Fontana Dictionary of M ...

or trust to make statements or relay or report statements that would be considered slander and libel if made by anyone else.

New Zealand and Canada

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, for instance, cases of political libel are inhibited by permitting open discussion of an allegation or rumor, if conducted responsibly and with due care for the

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

of the person whose reputation would be affected. This privilege generally does not extend to repetition of discredited statements, malice, or comments made out of process or out of order in the organization or institution in which the position of authority is held.

United Kingdom

The defence of qualified privilege became very important in the UK, especially after a case involving allegations made by the ''Sunday Times'' against the Irish Taoiseach

Albert Reynolds Albert Martin Reynolds (3 November 1932 – 21 August 2014) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1992 to 1994. He held various cabinet positions between 1979 and 1991, including Ministe ...

. During that case the judge outlined a ten-point test of 'responsible journalism'. If reporters and editors followed these points, the judge said, they would enjoy a degree of protection from libel action, even if they could not prove factual allegations. The defence was abolished in England and Wales by the Defamation Act 2013, which replaced it with the statutory defences of ''publication on a matter of public interest'' and ''peer-reviewed statements in a scientific or academic journal''. To qualify for this defense, a report is required to be one of a public meeting or press conference that is: * fair, * accurate, * published without malice, * subject to the right of reply in the form of a letter that gives explanation or contradiction. It need not be contemporaneous (depending on publication), where it has to be for absolute privilege.

References

Tort law Defamation Journalism {{law-term-stub