Rigby v John Fairfax Group Pty Ltd

The New South Wales Court of Appeal considered an appeal by the plaintiff, Rigby, against the decision of the trial judge who had dismissed his defamation action against the defendants, John Fairfax Group Pty Ltd and others. The dispute arose from the publication of an article in the *Australian Financial Review* which the plaintiff alleged was defamatory of him.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the trial judge had erred in finding that the defendants had established the defence of qualified privilege in relation to the defamatory imputations pleaded by the plaintiff. Specifically, the court had to determine if the occasion of publication was one of qualified privilege and, if so, whether the defendants had acted with malice.

The Court of Appeal, in its reasoning, affirmed the principles governing qualified privilege. It held that for the defence to succeed, the occasion of publication must be privileged, meaning that the person publishing the information and the recipient must have a common interest or duty in relation to the subject matter. Furthermore, the publication must be made without malice, which requires an absence of improper motive or improper purpose in publishing the defamatory material. The court reviewed the evidence presented at trial to assess whether these elements were satisfied.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, upholding the trial judge's finding that the defence of qualified privilege had been made out. Consequently, the plaintiff's defamation action failed.