LIBEL CHARGE FAILS
Press and Court Reports CHIEF JUSTICE EXPLAINS Sydney, September 2. Claiming that the "Sydney Morning Herald” had failed to publish evidence ■which contradicted the unfavourable evidence given against him at his first trial for conspiracy, of which he was acquitted on the second trial, John Gunn, solicitor, sought £5OOO damages from the proprietors of the “Herald” for alleged libel. The Chief Justice, Sir Philip Street, summing up. said that the jury’s duty was to decide whether the report was substantially fair and accurate. What was meant by fair and accurate was not the mere setting out of every word of the evidence, address, or summing up If a report, taken ns- a whole, was substantially accurate, the mere fact that there were slight inaccuracies or omissions was Immaterial. Some lari tude must be allowed in respect to omissions or inaccuracies, otherwise there would be no safety in reporting these proceedings. The jury found a verdict for the defendants.
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 291, 4 September 1931, Page 9
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161LIBEL CHARGE FAILS Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 291, 4 September 1931, Page 9
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