For qualified privilege to come into play as a for of protection for journalists, there must be defamation/libel = defamation+publication+identification. There are two types of qualified privilege: common law and statutory.
Common law qualified privilege on the idea of "the common convenience and welfare of society", that is, the public interest.
Statutory qualified privilege comes into use when reporting in court with a judge present. Everything can be mentioned, and it has to be made clear whether or not a defendant denies charges. Statutory qualified privilege must be published immediately, contain no errors or any indication of malice.
To highlight the extent of which a journalist would be covered by qualified privilege after defamation, Lord Nicholls gave the ten point test of reasonable journalism:
The ten point test:
1. The seriousness of the allegation – the more serious the allegation, the more protection will be applied. 2. The nature of the information and the extent to which the subject matter is a matter of public concern.
3 . The source of the information. The more authoritative the source, the more you are entitled to report their allegations, even if those allegations can not be proved or even if they turn out to be incorrect.
4. The steps taken to verify the information.
5. The status of the information.
6. The urgency of the matter.
7. Whether comment was sought from the claimant .
8. Whether the article contained the gist of the claimant’s side of the story
9. The tone of the article.
10. The circumstances of the publication - must be fast, accurate and fair!
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