THE legal concept of privilege is designed to permit the reporting of false or defamatory statements where such reporting is clearly in the public interest.
For example, a paper reporting a criminal action has clearly published damaging remarks about the accused if he or she subsequently is cleared. But the defence of privilege gives absolute protection to such reports so long as they are fair and accurate.
The robust language of Parliament is equally protected. Any statement made by an MP on the floor of the House cannot give rise to an action for libel.
The notion of qualified privilege extends this defence further in cases where a newspaper can show that the matter was important enough and it was in the public interest to report it.
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The defence extends to the proceedings of a number of public bodies and meetings, the reports that come out of them, and to a number of other situations. It applies, for example, when a former employer replies to an inquiry for a reference or when possible crimes are reported to the police.
If it can be shown that the report is malicious, the defence fails.
The House of Lords has also decided that, in some cases, demonstrating that a journalist behaved professionally and responsibly could be a sufficient defence.