The Law of Libel.

Evening Star, Issue 7340, 12 October 1887, Page 3

The Law of Libel.

By the Bill introduced into the House of Commons by Sir Algernon Borthwick all fair reports of judicial proceedings are to be absolutely privileged, which provision alone will save the Courts a world of trouble and delay, so nico have the lawyers now made the distinctions been privileged and nonprivileged matter. So, too, the proceedings of public meetings generally are to be privileged—a reform which will at once save editors much anxiety, and will enable the public to get much valuable information of which it is at present deprived, because journalists are afraid to give it. The further provision that the publication of police notices is to be privileged has also been much needed, since the action recently brought against the ' Times' by an ex-convict, who claimed damages because the police had warned the public against him and his swindles. Scarcely less valuable will be the enactment of the section which disallows plaintiffs, who cannot prove malice, and to whom an apology has beep made, from receiving theoretical or sentimental damages. They are only to have such special damages as they can prove to have actually resulted to them from tho publication of the alleged libel. Another section is aimed at that gross abuse of our legal machinery by which the plaintiff in the Kertoh libel cases recently prosecuted a series of actions for the same libel, while admitting that he could trace no damage to a particular publication. It provides that in such a case a defendant may give in evidence, in mitigation of damages, that the plaintiff has already recovered compensation for the same libel, which obviously fair course he is, under the present idiotic law, precluded from taking. And there are two other excellent provisions in this comprehensive Bill, viz., that no person shall be found guilty on prosecution for libel, unless it be proved that he was party or privy to its publication ; and that in certain cases a plaintiff shall be obliged to give security for costs before being allowed to proceed with his action,