The Sunday Times released an explosive takedown of the government’s response to the Coronavirus crisis in a detailed report by its investigative team Insight. In its account of the run-up to the crisis, the government was accused of having “sleepwalked into disaster” and costing thousands of lives. In its investigation, the Sunday Times spoke to scientists, academics, doctors, emergency planners, public officials and politicians surrounding the crisis, as well as various sources from within the government, including an adviser to Downing Streetspeaking “off the record” . Undoubtedly, many of these sources only spoke to the Sunday Times under guarantees of anonymity. The tradition of source protection, or reporter’s privilege, is a key right accorded to journalists across the world, including under international law. However, are there any repercussions to speaking to the press? Are there any circumstances in which a court can compel a journalist to name their sources? Pri...
The tort of defamation provides redress for unjustified attacks to reputation. It is available to both individuals and corporations, although different criteria apply. Defamation can take two forms, namely libel and slander. The classic definition in the UK comes from a 1930’s case when Lord Atkin proposed that the test should be whether the words “tend to lower the plaintiff in the estimation of right-thinking members of society.” An example of a successful defamation of character lawsuit brought by Taylor Hampton is that of Dr Jose Antonio Garcia against the Daily Mail in respect of an article headlined “A whole year of hell, thanks to a foreign doctor”, which falsely accused the Claimant of misdiagnosing a patient as being alcohol dependent causing him to lose his driving licence so denying him his livelihood for a year. The Daily Mail unsuccessfully attempted to justify its attack on Spanish born Dr Serrano for being a “foreign doctor” by falsely claiming his comm...