Channel Seven Adelaide Pty Ltd v S, Dj

[2007] SASC 117

Supreme Court of South Australia

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Defamation
2. › Justification
3. › Suspicion of criminal offence
4. › Conduct rule
5. › Whether particulars of justification must focus on plaintiff's conduct rather than police investigation and beliefs of others
6. › Whether conduct rule is a strict rule or a general principle
1. Defamation
2. › Justification
3. › Repetition rule
4. › Whether pleading police investigations and hearsay evidence as particulars of justification breaches the repetition rule
1. Defamation
2. › Fair comment
3. › Distinction between fact and comment
4. › Whether statement that person is suspect in murder case is statement of fact or comment
5. › Whether implied meaning of reasonable grounds converts factual statement into comment
1. Defamation
2. › Fair comment
3. › Facts upon which comment based
4. › Whether facts must be stated or indicated in publication or be matters of general notoriety
5. › Whether facts extending beyond what ordinary viewer could be aware of are proper material for comment

Quick Take

Particulars of justification of an imputation that a person is suspected of a crime on reasonable grounds must focus on the objective conduct of the plaintiff, not on the police investigation, hearsay evidence obtained by police, or views formed by police. The 'conduct rule' is not a strict rule but a principle to be applied, permitting some reliance on circumstantial evidence and background facts. A statement that a person is a suspect in a murder case is a statement of fact, not comment, and the addition of an implied meaning of reasonable grounds does not convert it into comment for the purposes of the fair comment defence.