Source: https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/english-legal-system/reynolds-defence.php
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 08:35:35+00:00

Document:
Mr. Reynolds proceedings came before Franch J and jury and main issues were about the Article’s Qualified privilege10 at common law, justification , malice and damages. In this case Times took a defence as this a matter of public interest, fair and accurate report .Here the judge took two different views.
For that said judgement , Mr Reynolds preferred an appeal before the House of Lords, where the counter appeal was filed by the Sunday Times for the defence of qualified privilege.
Qualified privilege means a statement made by a person about another with fair in nature and there is a legal or moral compulsion to give the information by the person who make it and another person is bound to receive it.15 In this case it is endeavor to setup the term duty-interest privilege,16 where the media bound to report to relevant authorities rather than publishing to the public of their uncovered wrong doing ,which these were objected by the media.
“1.seriousness of allegation-serious allegation will be protected rather than trivial allegations.
2. Nature of information- which concern about public matter.
3. Source of information-is to see such information is true in nature.
4. Steps taken to verify the information , was the publisher put effort to elucidate the information from other side of their story.
5. Status of the information is to verify the allegation was old or new one or whether it was raised by someone and got fail.
6 . The Urgency of the matter is the news perishable one and paper must compete to be first with the news.
How or why the allegations might be untrue which give protection to publisher.
8. And to see, whether the articles contained the gist of the claimant side of the story.
9. Tone of the article where by Lord Nicholas “A newspaper can raise queries or call for an investigations.”It need not adopt allegations as statement of fact.
10. Circumstances of the publication where the allegation should be brought to the public attention “as quickly as possible”. These are the codes for the responsible journalism .From the Reynolds case Lord J Nicholas laid down these codes, where the publisher was failed to comply these codes.
European convention on Human Rights Art 8 states about the rights to respect for one’s private life and Art 10 about the right to freedom of expression. Regarding these articles, Art 10 is not an absolute right which is subjected to certain restrictions.
By L Nicholas” Protection of reputation is not a matter of importance only to the affected individual and family and conducive to the public good .It is in the public interest that the reputation of public figures should not be debased falsely.21Thus in Reynolds case, Art 8 overlaps the Art 10 where the Times failed to show the absence of maice, where the Mr Reynolds had a right to protect his reputation.
From the above statement, the outcome of Reynolds defence are whether the publisher is entitled for qualified privilege .If so whether the publisher acted in Responsible Journalism or the Art 10 of the European convention on Human Rights is valuable than the Art 8 of the European convention of the human rights .The results are Times failed in qualified privilege and not in responsible journalism .Moreover European convention on Human rights, Art 8 dominate over the Art 10 of European convention on Human rights.
"Reynolds defence." LawTeacher.net. 11 2013. All Answers Ltd. 04 2019 <https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/english-legal-system/reynolds-defence.php?vref=1>.
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LawTeacher. November 2013. Reynolds defence. [online]. Available from: https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/english-legal-system/reynolds-defence.php?vref=1 [Accessed 19 April 2019].
LawTeacher. Reynolds defence [Internet]. November 2013. [Accessed 19 April 2019]; Available from: https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/english-legal-system/reynolds-defence.php?vref=1.

References: Art 8
 Art 10
 Art 10
 Art 8
 Art 10
 Art 10
 Art 8
 Art 8
 Art 10