Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 36
1 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I had come to Morgan v. Odhams Press
2 Limited. This, as your Lordship will recollect, is in fact
3 a case about identification and an action based on some
4 articles or an article in a popular Sunday newspaper, and a
5 daily one as well, I believe. But it nonetheless contains
6 what your Lordship may think are useful expressions of
7 principle. First of all, in Lord Reid's speech at
8 page 1245, starting at letter G, he says:
9
10 "If we are to follow Lewis' case and take
11 the ordinary man as our guide then we must
12 accept a certain amount of loose thinking. The
13 ordinary reader does not formulate reasons in
14 his own mind: he gets a general impression and
15 one can expect him to look again before coming
16 to a conclusion and acting on it. But
17 formulated reasons are very often an
18 afterthought.
19 The publishers of newspapers must know the
20 habits of mind of their readers and I see no
21 injustice in holding them liable if readers,
22 behaving as they normally do, honestly reach
23 conclusions which they might be expected to
24 reach. If one were to adopt a stricter
25 standards it would be too easy for purveyors of
26 gossip to disguise their defamatory matter so
27 that the judge would have to say that there is
28 insufficient to entitle the plaintiff to go to
29 trial on the question whether that matter refers
30 to him....."
31
32 Or, as we would say in this case is defamatory of him.
33
34 "....but the ordinary reader with perhaps more
35 worldly wisdom would see the connection and
36 identify the plaintiff with consequent damage to
37 his reputation for which the law would have to
38 refuse him reparation."
39
40 Then, my Lord, on page 1254 in -----
41
42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let me read that again.
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: Sorry, yes. (Pause) Then, my Lord, 1254, in the
45 speech of Lord Morris, between B and C, there is a sentence
46 which begins, just above C: "Further it was said...."
47
48 MR. MORRIS: Sorry, where are we?
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just above C.
51
52 MR. RAMPTON: On page 1254, just above letter C.
53
54 "Further, it was said that what must be
55 contemplated is that a person would read an
56 article with care. With respect I do not
57 agree. What must be contemplated is a reading
58 of a newspaper in what a jury would consider to
59 be the ordinary way in which a newspaper article
60 would be read. The average reader does not read
