Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 05


     
     1        point is that we have not had proper advice on it, and that
     2        I do not know if the -- maybe if there is going to be some
     3        consideration of this matter that there should be
     4        authorities referred to.  I don't know if the Telnikoff
     5        case is ----
     6
     7   MR. RAMPTON:   Again I am trying to be helpful.  All the
     8        relevant authorities as we see them are referred to in that
     9        quite long and rather full piece of paper which we sent to
    10        all people concerned some considerable time ago.  There is
    11        a whole section on fair comment with all the relevant
    12        authorities as we see them referred to in the relevant
    13        paragraphs.  Indeed, the actual copies of the actual
    14        authorities have been sent to the defendants.
    15
    16   MR JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    17
    18   MR. MORRIS:   I did not realise that paper was dealt with.
    19
    20   MR JUSTICE BELL:  It is paragraph 3 of the legal submissions
    21        which were sent to you.
    22
    23   MR. MORRIS:   Right.
    24
    25   MR. RAMPTON:   It does include Telnikoff.  It includes a very
    26        great deal more than Telnikoff.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Particularly sub-paragraph B, on page 5 of
    29        the legal submissions.
    30
    31   MR. MORRIS:   Right.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   The reason I mentioned it, not because at
    34        the moment I thought that there would be any real issue
    35        about what the law is, though when you have taken advice
    36        you may tell me that there is an issue about it, but I
    37        wanted you to be aware of what seemed to me a crack that
    38        one could fall into out of ignorance in thinking it is
    39        easier to defend a comment because you do not necessarily
    40        have to show the comment is right, only that it is fair,
    41        but if one sets off to take that apparently easier route
    42        you may suddenly find that you cannot depend upon matters
    43        of fact which you could have depended upon had you tried to
    44        justify the statement as a statement of fact rather than an
    45        expression of opinion.  I think you got hold of that point
    46        yesterday afternoon.
    47
    48   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   So it may not be so much as what the legal 
    51        principles are.  At the moment, although I will keep an 
    52        open mind, they seem to me to be correctly set out in 
    53        Mr. Rampton's legal submissions.  It is the ramifications
    54        of the legal principles so far as the case is concerned.
    55
    56   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.
    57
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Might I suggest this; that when you come to
    59        the different sections in the leaflet, you tell me what you
    60        would suggest the meaning is.  You do not at that stage

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