In defamation arising from television broadcasts, the ordinary reasonable viewer is not to be taken as having knowledge of the reputations or prior comedic activities of programme participants, even where the programme has a comedic format. The comedic context of a programme does not deprive clearly stated factual assertions of defamatory meaning. Contemporaneous denials by other participants do not serve as an antidote where the viewer is left with conflicting assertions. The principle in David Syme & Co v Canavan (1918) about imputing prior knowledge to readers of a particular newspaper does not extend to television audiences in the modern media environment.
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