Law:

Section:

(a) Defamation-------Libel---Fair comment, defence of---Facts relied on for making the comment---Extent to which such facts had to be referred to in the comment itself and be accurately stated---Where an adverse comment was made generally or generically on matters that were in the public domain, it was not a prerequisite of the defence of fair comment that the readers should be in a position to evaluate the comment for themselves---Internet had made it possible for people to make public comments about others and frequently detailed information about the facts that had given rise to the comments was not set out---In such circumstances the defence of fair comment would be robbed of much of its efficacy if readers had to be given detailed information to enable evaluation of the comment---Comment need not identify the matters on which it was based with sufficient particularity to enable the reader to judge for himself whether it was well founded, however the comment must identify at least in general terms what it was that had led the commentator to make the comment, so that the reader could understand what the comment was about and the commentator could, if challenged, explain by giving particulars of the subject matter of his comment why he expressed the views that he did---Five propositions in relation to the defence of fair comment had been set out by Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead in the case of Cheng Albert v. Tse Wai Chun Paul (2000) 10 BHRC 525, [2001] EMLR 777, which were that, firstly, the comment must be on a matter of public interest; secondly, the comment must be recognisable as comment, as distinct from an imputation of fact; thirdly, the comment must be based on facts which are true or protected by privilege; fourthly, the comment must explicitly or implicitly indicate, at least in general terms, what are the facts on which the comment is being made; and fifthly, the comment must be one which could have been made by an honest person, however prejudiced he might be, and however exaggerated or obstinate his views---Supreme Court endorsed the said five propositions, save that the fourth proposition was re-written as 'the comment must explicitly or…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492