“PML-N decorated the ground in Sargodha, a large number of people were present in the meeting place, and Maryam Nawaz and Punjab’s Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz have addressed the gathering”
“(a) illegally smuggles gold; and (b) participated in a corrupt relationship with Imran Khan while Mr Khan was Prime Minister of Pakistan, which resulted in the Claimant, in return for his political support through ARY for Mr Khan’s efforts to undermine the Pakistani state, dishonestly gaining enormous financial advantages which he would not otherwise have properly and lawfully obtained, including illicit gifts and tax rebates of 10s of billions of Rupees, and to acquire World Call, a company worth 4 billion Rupees, at a complete undervalue without any due process, thereby stealing massive funds from the Pakistani state.”
“i) The court must consider whether the claimant has a “realistic” as opposed to a “fanciful” prospect of success. ii) A “realistic” claim is one that carries some degree of conviction. This means a claim that is more than merely arguable. iii) In reaching its conclusion the court must not conduct a “mini-trial”. iv) This does not mean that the court must take at face value and without analysis everything that a claimant says in his statements before the court. In some cases it may be clear that there is no real substance in factual assertions made, particularly if contradicted by contemporaneous documents. v) However, in reaching its conclusion the court must take into account not only the evidence actually placed before it on the application for summary judgment, but also the evidence that can reasonably be expected to be available at trial. vi) Although a case may turn out at trial not to be really complicated, it does not follow that it should be decided without the fuller investigation into the facts at trial than is possible or permissible on summary judgment. Thus the court should hesitate about making a final decision without a trial, even where there is no obvious conflict of fact at the time of the application, where reasonable grounds exist for believing that a fuller investigation into the facts of the case would add to or alter the evidence available to a trial judge and so affect the outcome of the case. vii) On the other hand it is not uncommon for an application under Part 24 to give rise to a short point of law or construction and, if the court is satisfied that it has before it all the evidence necessary for the proper determination of the question and that the parties have had an adequate opportunity to address it in argument, it should grasp the nettle and decide it. The reason is quite simple: if the respondent's case is bad in law, he will in truth have no real prospect of succeeding on his claim or successfully defending the claim against him, as the case may be. Similarly, if the applicant's case is bad in law, the sooner that is determined, the better. If it is possible to show by evidence that although material in the form of documents or oral evidence that would put the documents in another light is not currently before the court, such material is likely to exist and can be expected to be available at trial, it would be wrong to give summary judgment because there would be a real, as opposed to a fanciful, prospect of success. However, it is not enough simply to argue that the case should be allowed to go to trial because something may turn up which would have a bearing on the question of construction.”
“95. Many of the categories of documents and types of events referred to in the Schedule to the 1996 Act are ones which are particularly likely to contain allegations defamatory of someone. In the case of many documents or other occasions, including particulars of claim, the documents will include a partisan account of a highly contentious matter, where that account has not been subject to review or control by the court or any other impartial body”. “99. In my judgment s.15 reflects the need to have regard both to the public interest in freedom of expression and to the public interest that an individual’s right to his reputation be not interfered with otherwise than for a legitimate aim and when it is proportionate to do so. Parliament has itself carried out the balancing exercise in part…. “100. … The effect of s.15(3) is to give the court trying a defamation action the power and duty to consider a balancing exercise on the particular facts of the case. In effect in that, and in the predecessor legislation, Parliament has required the court to carry out a balancing exercise similar to the one which has now become familiar under the HRA, namely Art 10 and Art 8 (see Re S (A Child) (Identification: Restrictions on Publication)[2005] 1 AC 593 , Lord Steyn at [17]).”
“25. It may be that the significance of s.15(3) is to be found in the different wording of s.14. Absolute privilege is confined to reports of domestic and European courts. It does not extend to courts elsewhere. The categories covered by s.15, by contrast, are very wide indeed: see the contents of Sch.1 to the 1996 Act. Thus, it may be that the additional hurdles set up in s.15(3) would have to be overcome in relation to matters taking place elsewhere in the world. For example, the privilege would attach to reports of ‘proceedings in public before a court anywhere in the world’. If a British citizen were to be defamed in the course of such proceedings, it may be that the Defendant would have to show ‘public concern’ and ‘public benefit’ before being entitled to rely on the statutory privilege. Such concerns were expressed in the report of the Supreme Court Procedure Committee on Defamation (the “Neill Committee”) in July 1991 at para. XII.13: “Equally, however, we think it wrong that defamatory (in some cases very grave) charges can be reported in this country under statutory privilege without any corresponding statutory protection for the individual who is under criticism or attack. We are not satisfied that sufficient protection would be provided in such circumstances by the exercise of editorial discretion.” 26. That is a possible clue to Parliament’s intention in the enactment of s.15(3). Be that as it may, I am quite satisfied that the present Defendant does not require to overcome any additional hurdles in relation to a report of proceedings in the Worcester County Court. Citizens in this jurisdiction are entitled to know what goes on in public hearings before any of Her Majesty’s courts.”
“In June 1982, three High Court judges were kidnapped and executed at an army shooting range. A special inquiry into the killings recommended the prosecution of ten people, including FIt. Lt. Rawlings' close aide, Captain (Retired) Kojo Tsikata, who was named as "the master mind" of the plot. Five people were prosecuted and executed, but not Captain Tsikata.”
“What has caused me great anxiety is whether the public truly gain benefit from this article if they are only told half the truth about the matter in issue. Should reputation suffer such a sacrifice to give freedom to the press? At the end Mr Kentridge persuaded me that there is a public benefit in receiving this information. Its source was a judicial inquiry whose status derived from a law passed to empower it. The inquiry was conducted along judicial lines. The plaintiff had the opportunity to put his case. The subject matter was of the gravest relevance to the conduct of affairs in Ghana and the due administration of its government. The plaintiff was then a special adviser to ruling Council and was responsible for the security services. He was a close aide of Flight Lt Rawlings. Moreover, and crucially, he remained in high office in the government whose part in the forthcoming elections was under critical review. He is not part of history though his actions may be. There is a benefit in knowing what view the Inquiry had taken of him. Their status commands some respect. To require a newspaper so thoroughly to investigate subsequent events and report them in order to place the whole picture before the public in order to exclude damage to individual reputation is to make unacceptable inroads into the press' role as the public watchdog. It transforms investigative journalism from a virtue to a necessity. A degree of flexibility must be allowed and that will vary from case to case. Here I have been persuaded that the publication of the report is entitled to its qualified privilege.”
“The law must accommodate trenchant expression on political issues, but it would be wrong to achieve this by distorting the ordinary meaning of words, or treating as opinion what the ordinary person would understand as an allegation of fact. To do so would unduly restrict the rights of those targeted by defamatory political speech. The solution must in my judgment lie in resort, where applicable, to the defences of truth and honest opinion or in a suitably tailored application of the law protecting statements, whether of fact or opinion, on matters of public interest, for which Parliament has provided a statutory defence unders 4 of the Defamation Act 2013 .”