A newspaper article describing a specific incident can support a general imputation of dishonest character where the alleged conduct is sufficiently extensive, serious and risky that ordinary reasonable readers could infer that only a dishonest person would have done it. The characterisation of conduct as dishonest based on multiple stated facts in an article is an implication (for which the publisher is responsible), not an inference upon inference (for which the publisher would not be responsible). The word 'dishonest' in a defamatory imputation is not limited to fraud or deceit but extends to conduct that is not straightforward, dishonourable, disgraceful or underhand.
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