Qualified Privilege Essay

There are four major defenses which can be relied upon defamation, justification, fair comment, absolute privilege; and qualified privilege. (Discuss) Qualified privilege, this exists for the same fundamental purpose as absolute privilege which is to protect those who say defamatory statements in circumstances where the common convenience and welfare of society demand such protection. If we compare absolute privilege and qualified privilege we can see that absolute privilege is limited to some defined occasions. On the other hand, qualified privilege applies to the protection of a wider variety of situations whereby it is in the public interest that individuals are able to comment freely on what they honestly believe to be true in their
eyes, without being afraid of legal liability. Absolute privilege main aim is to protect the interest of the defendant while qualified privilege is to protect the interest of the plaintiff. In order for the plaintiff to be protected he/she would have to show proof that the defendant maliciously said something that caused harm to him/her. Qualified privilege deals with statements which are done in circumstances dealing with, self defence, legal moral and social duty, and also with parties having a common interest. Under social duty let’s say Kriston stole Noel’s bike and I am witness of that, so I run to call noel and tell him that Kriston is a thief because I saw when he stole his bike, in this case Noel will be unable to sue me for slander because I am saying the truth and I will be protected under this defense because it isn’t an untrue statement. Statements under self defense are statements made against a person who is trying to defame someone. The plaintiff is trying to protect his/her reputation. A case that falls under self defense is the case Osborn v Boulter. The principle in this case is that the defendant in this case, is not entitled to make unnecessary imputations of his attacker especially with statements that deals with his attacker’s private life because it is unconnected with the issue of the case and irrelevant to vindication. This shows that the law will only allow him to repel the charges which are brought against him; they won’t allow him to bring up accusations against his opponent, especially if it doesn’t deal with anything that is related to the issue of the case. Statements made between parties having a common interest, this is when a two persons or a group of individuals are talking about another group of persons or a particular individual.
There purpose is not necessarily to defame the group or the individual but instead they are trying to inform others of their behavior in society and how they are viewed by others. For example, if me and some of my friends inform P & P supermarket that one of the employees working there is a thief, we will not be doing it to intentionally defame the person but we are just trying to be honest and inform the business about the type of employee. This kind of information would come in handy to the business but it would have to be true because if it was untrue then me and my friends could be sued under this defence for trying to defame and ruin the reputation of the employee. A major thing that is happening today is defamatory statements and political discussions in the media. We can see that the press, newspapers and especially magazines write many defamatory things about celebrities and other idols. They feel free to give their opinions and comment on these people. In a way they are taking advantage of this because they aren’t even afraid of presenting untrue facts to the world and they do not fear liability for
libel. The traditional common law principle is that untrue and defamatory statements cannot properly be made to the world because it concerns a matter of public interest. Under qualified privilege the defendant is not required to prove the truth of the defamatory statement. His main role is to show that the publication made was in fulfillment of a duty to inform the public. This is the reason why under this defense many people who do publication of newspaper and magazines are protected because they provide information to the public about everyone and everything but they shouldn’t take advantage of this defence because they can get into trouble for presenting untrue statements to the public because then they would be intentionally defaming someone and the law will not protect them if that’s the case. All in all, we can see that these defences exist for a reason, which is to protect those who are being harmed by others. Defamation is a false attack on the good name of another individual. Many persons try to defame others because of jealousy or because of envy. It is up to the law to protect persons which are victims of defamation. The only way a person can really ruin the image of another individual is if the statements being uttered are in fact true. In these types of cases the defendant will be able to defeat the plaintiff because the law will not protect an impersonator. A legal claim for defamation is that it entitles the victim to recover against the defamer for his/ her emotional damages. In addition to this, the victim will be able to sue for punitive or damages. Each time a defamatory statement is repeated, is a new injury, which means that you can obtain damages each time a defamatory statement is being repeated by an individual. In defamatory cases when you appear in court you don’t necessarily need to prove damages under defamation. The damages are presumed which means that you don’t have to say that you were emotionally destroyed or that you needed to see a doctor to seek help. Tort of defamation is to protect a person’s interest in his/ her reputation and these defences are four main ingredients that fall under this legal injury.