£200 DAMAGES AWARDED IN LIBEL CLAIM

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 May 1949, Page 3

£200 DAMAGES AWARDED IN LIBEL CLAIM

WELLINGTON, May 20.—A jury, awarded Leslie Edwards, a Welling-, ton journalist, £2OO damages against the New Zealand Press Association, Ltd., for £3500 damages on the ground that a message distributed by the association and published by nine New Zealand daily newspapers was defamatory of him. The jury retired fpr three hours 55 minutes. Move For New Trial

Senior counsel for the Press Association (Mr G. G. G. Watson) moved for judgment for the defendant, notwithstanding the jury’s verdict, or alternatively for a new trial, on the ground that the jury’s answer to the second question put to it by the Chief Justice (Sir Humphrey O’Leary) was contrary to the weight of evidence. Mr Watson’s motion and one moved by the plaintiff’s senior counsel (Mr Trevor Henry) for judgment were stood down for argument later. To the question whether the words in the statement complained of in their plain meaning were defamatory of the plaintiff, the jury answered “No.” Innuendo Question

The second question put to them dealt with innuendo. It asked whether the words in the statement meant what the plaintiff alleged in paragraph 7 of his statement of claim, or whether it was defamatory of the plaintiff. To this’question, the jury answered “Yes.” Paragraph 7 of the plaintiff s statement of claim alleged that defendant and the newspapers meant that the plaintiff was a person, who did not bear true allegiance to the Government and people of New Zealand, or of the British Commonwealth, who did not respect the Constitution, who was actively working by every means in his power to bring about the downfall of the Constitution and society, who had allegiance to a foreign Power, who would be a traitor to his own country, who was an enemy of economic stability and a fomenter of industrial unrest, who was a principal member of an international organisation with objects as aforesaid, and who used his journalistic skill for the propagation and furtherance of the said objects.