That is what free expression is all about whether the Government likes it or not. The Prime Minister is entitled to respond, but he doesn t have the liberty to defame anyone. You are a politician, you have to take your licks, Mendes said. Gordon said Panday brought him into public scandal and disrepute when he allegedly referred to him as a pseudo-racist during an Indian Arrival Day speech on May 30, 1997. In defence, Panday has said, among other things, that he had a qualified privilege to make the comment.
Qualified privilege gives a person a right to reply to an attack.
Mendes said there was no evidence in Panday s speech that he was responding to Gordon s criticism of the Green Paper. He described qualified privilege as a shield and not an attack. That is what this defence is saying. If you criticise my Government then I am entitled to defame you even though my attack on you really has no connection whatsoever to my criticism. Mendes said even if Panday was replying to Gordon s attack of the Green Paper, the allegations of pseudo-racist were extraneous.