Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 39
1 My Lord, I also draw attention to the fact that -- and,
2 again, I do not know, because I have not seen the judgment
3 -- what prominence this has in the actual judgment, but in
4 this Times Report I draw attention to the fact that
5 Neill L.J. specifically cited that passage from, I think it
6 is Lord Devlin's speech in Lewis, where he says -- and this
7 is in the righthand column:
8
9 "......unfortunately as the law of defamation
10 has to take into account is especially prone to
11 do so when it is derogatory."
12
13 MS. STEEL: Where is that bit?
14
15 MR. RAMPTON: It is the first complete paragraph in the
16 righthand column. It starts: "In the context of the
17 present case...."
18
19 MS. STEEL: Thank you.
20
21 MR. RAMPTON: That is about the implications, particularly when
22 they are derogatory. I do not draw particular attention to
23 any other part of that report.
24
25 I turn then, if I may, to the two authorities that we have
26 on our context though I think English and Scottish
27 Co-operative is not so much on context but on the effect of
28 headlines.
29
30 MR. MORRIS: Which number are we on now?
31
32 MR. RAMPTON: We are now on number 5, Charleston v. News Group
33 Newspapers. We have all read this before, so I do not
34 believe I need to trouble with the headnote. The first
35 significant passage, my Lord, we believe is on page 453 --
36 Lord Bridge gave, I think, the only speech in this case --
37 starting at letter G.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Lord Nicholls gave -----
40
41 MR. RAMPTON: Oh, he did. Your Lordship is quite right. I am
42 going to cite from that in a moment. Letter G:
43
44 "The first formidable obstacle which Mr.
45 Craig's argument encounters is a long and
46 unbroken line of authority the effect of which
47 is accurately summarised in Duncan & Neill on
48 Defamation, as follows:
49 'In order to determine the natural and
50 ordinary meaning of the words of which the
51 plaintiff complains it is necessary to take into
52 account the context in which the words were used
53 and the mode of publication. Thus a plaintiff
54 cannot select an isolated passage in an article
55 and complain of that alone if other parts of the
56 article throw a different light on that
57 passage.'"
58
59 My Lord, equally, we would say, nor can a defendant
60 select an isolated passage from the article and say that,
