Where a newspaper article contains both discussion of government or political matters and separate defamatory allegations about a private party, the Lange qualified privilege defence will not protect the defamatory material unless it is sufficiently connected to and relevant to the government or political discussion. The traditional nexus requirement from Adam v Ward applies to the Lange defence. A publication that is 'quite separate and distinct' in its treatment of the government matter and the private party allegations will not satisfy the threshold requirement.
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