🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <e6pEfbAWOkH3IwFv@packer.demon.co.uk>, Tim Packer <tim@packer
.NOSPAM.demon.co.uk> writes
>In article <lr1edMAB5iH3EwbO@kitzbuhel.demon.co.uk>, Andy
><andy@kitzbuhel.demon.co.uk> writes
>>In article <371DA5C8.2826@virgin.net>, Osiris <orion.osiris@virgin.net>
>>writes
>>>Andy wrote:
>>>
>>>> Isn't it more correct to say that *during those 10 days* Demon were
>>>> publishing material which Dr Godfrey had asserted to them was libellous
>>>> - no court having ruled it to be so.
>>>
>>>Eh? Moreland agreed it was in his judgement: "squalid, obscene and 
>>>defamatory of the Plaintiff."
>>>
>>>
>>I had thought that the judgement came *after* the 10 days.
>
>Now that's an interesting thought.  Could I claim that The Sun was
>defaming me, and have it taken out of all newsagent's all over the
>country; then the next day do it again; then the next day do it again...
>I could put a newspaper out of business in weeks! 

You can claim what you want. You are perfectly entitled to walk into a
newsagents and point out that in your view an article in a newspaper
defames you. You ask him to withdraw the paper from sale. He can do
several things.

He can ignore you entirely, at his peril.
He can look at the article and say to himself (after consulting a lawyer
if he wishes), this article is not defamatory in nature, and go on
selling it.

He can see that it is defamatory, and that he will cause you additional
humiliation if he sells that defamatory material to others, and
accordingly withdraw it.

Making the claim that it is defamatory does _not_ mean that it is
automatically withdrawn.

> If the same standards
>are applied to newspapers as to newsgroups, it wouldn't matter whether
>it was true or not, they'd have to bin them just in case.

No, newspapers and their distributors have lived with these laws for
many years, and have still managed.

-- 
David Swarbrick, Solicitor, Brighouse, West Yorkshire
Web: http://www.swarb.co.uk.  david@swarb.demon.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1484 722531
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