Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 16


     
     1        the heading, and therefore "fair comment".
     2
     3        I do not want to lead you into something which you do not
     4        think is so.  I mean, this is just a thought which had
     5        crossed my mind anyway, that you might suggest that.
     6
     7   MR. MORRIS:   It is not necessarily what is following.  I mean,
     8        you have to take the other text in the leaflet which may
     9        relate to that issue as well.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will put what follows under the heading,
    12        and any other relevant material in the leaflet.  What
    13        I would like to do, I would like Ms. Steel to continue with
    14        what she has to say about advertising, and, if Mr. Rampton
    15        would agree, I would like to be given a transcript of the
    16        discussion which started with Ms. Steel speaking of
    17        different standards of what is acceptable around the world
    18        and finishing now.  I suggest you let Ms. Steel get on with
    19        the advertising and then read what has passed, so that you
    20        can come back to it at some stage, just as you may want to
    21        come back to the matter of principle, of what can be relied
    22        upon as fair comment.  We had that discussion on the first
    23        day.  I think you have a copy of that.
    24
    25        I did say, reading it through again this morning, that when
    26        we came to employment, I would want to ask you about that.
    27        It is a question of what is comment, what is statement of
    28        fact, what you say you can rely on to make the comment fair
    29        or to justify a statement of fact in so far as it is a
    30        general charge.  I have not particularly chosen my words
    31        carefully, but that is the broad scope.
    32
    33   MR. RAMPTON:   Can I just add one thing that might be helpful,
    34        since this is going to be a section that the Defendants
    35        will have for future reference?  The reason why there is
    36        this difference in the rules about statements of fact and
    37        fair comment, so far as I can tell, at the bottom is this:
    38        that if it is apparent from the words complained of that
    39        the defamatory statement is a comment and opinion, then the
    40        reader is free to make up his own mind whether or not he
    41        agrees with it in the light of the facts stated or
    42        referred, whereas with the statement of fact, of course, he
    43        does not have that opportunity.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Let us take the five minute break there.
    46        Unless you think you have got some hard and fast answer to
    47        what I have put forward which you want to declare now,
    48        I suggest that when I come back you carry on with your
    49        advertising.
    50
    51                         (Short Adjournment)
    52
    53   MS. STEEL:   Going back to that, it is the same point that I was
    54        on before, that Miss Dibb said that in 1977 the UK
    55        government ANNAN committee recommended a ban on advertising
    56        during children's programmes, on advertising child-targeted
    57        products until after 9 p.m.  That committee was concerned
    58        that these increased children's desire for products which
    59        their parents could not afford.  The ban did not come into
    60        effect primarily because the IBA reported that such a ban

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