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The Editor said what?When, as a trainee reporter, you hear that a feature article you have written is the subject of a threatened libel action, what do you do?The honourable thing might be to resign. That's what I offered to do in Editor Don Powis's office. "You'll do no such bloody thing, young man," came the immediate response. The Don never swore. So I knew he meant it. Patiently he explained that my welfare had nothing to do with it. He was concerned only for the paper. (Lesson Number One: Your paper always comes first.) Resignation would be tantamount to an admission of guilt. It would seriously weaken the paper's legal position. Therefore, I was not to think of quitting. But he would like me to do something. Diffidently he suggested I take a stroll down the road, meet the complainant, and try to talk her out of taking legal action. Diffidence, I came to learn, was part of The Don's armoury and could be used with deadly effect. Moments later I was sidling down the street, wondering how a greenhorn like me could avert threatened legal action. In the end, charm saved the day; most of it was exerted not by me but by the complainant's boy-friend and business partner on my behalf. He persuaded her to let the story die a quiet death, and to take no further action. I don't know why he bothered, and for the life of me I can't remember the names of any of the people involved, but on that day I learned a valuable lesson: It is possible to libel someone, even if you don't mention them by name. It's enough that they be identifiable from what you have written. So, purely as an example, if one were to publish the claim that a former female Prime Minister of Great Britain was (insert libellous comment of your choice here) it would be no defence to say Margaret Thatcher's name did not appear. There is only one former female Prime Minister. That makes the identification clear. Even more general references to less well-known people can be risky. "A certain left-handed accountant with a liking for golf... " (followed by some defamatory comment) could well result in a number of writs for libel, mostly from left-handed accountants you've never heard of, all claiming they could have been mistaken for the person referred to. For more on defamation, check out my Legal Notes. Links to other pages on this site. Top of this page. |