Law Recap Lecture Six:

4. Qualified privilege: 
Day to day protections for journalists in routine reporting. Eg. public meetings, council hearings, 

press conferences, police statements. 
Allows us to report information which may be defamatory or untrue. There is legal protection so 

long as it is fast, accurate and fair, without malice. 
There are two levels of QP - with and without explanation. 

With explanation: 
Any public meeting in the UK - whether admission is general or restricted. 
        - local councils 
        - tribunals, commissions, inquiries appointed by statutory provision. 
        - general meetings of UK public companies.
        - company documents or extracts from. 

Without explanation: 

• public proceedings in a legislature anywhere in the world. 

• Public proceedings in a court anywhere in the world. 

• Public proceedings of a public inquiry anywhere in the world. 

• Public proceedings of an international organisation conference. 

• Extract of any register or document legally required to be public. 

• A notice or advert published on legal authority anywhere in the world. 

• Extract of matter published on government authority anywhere. 

• Extract of matter published by international organisation anywhere in the world. 

The Reynolds Defence:
Protects the publication of defamatory material, provided it was a matter of public interest and that 

it was a product of responsible journalism. 

Lord Nicholls' list:

• The seriousness of the allegation. 

• The nature of the information (public interest?).

• The source of the information.

• The steps taken to verify the information. 

• The status of the information. 

• The urgency of the matter. 

• Whether the comment was from the claimant. 

• Whether the article contained the gist of the claimants story. 

• The tone of the article. 

• The circumstances of the publication.