Flood v Times Newspapers Ltd

The Supreme Court heard an appeal by Times Newspapers Limited (TNL) against a decision of the Court of Appeal that TNL were liable to pay damages to Sergeant Gary Flood for defamatory articles published about him in The Times. The articles reported allegations that Sergeant Flood had been involved in corrupt activities while working in the Extradition Unit of the Metropolitan Police Service. The articles included details of an investigation by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency into the allegations, which was instigated after TNL had contacted the police to report that it intended to publish the allegations. The police investigation found no evidence that Sergeant Flood had acted corruptly and he was not charged with any offence. The Supreme Court found in favour of TNL and held that the articles were protected by Reynolds privilege, a public interest defence to defamation. The Supreme Court found that it was in the public interest that the articles be published, because the subject matter of the articles was of high public interest and the journalists had acted responsibly in publishing the articles. The Court found that the journalists had acted responsibly by taking reasonable steps to verify the allegations, and the journalists had not adopted the allegations as true. The Supreme Court found that the Court of Appeal had erred in holding that the journalists had not acted responsibly because they had not taken reasonable steps to verify the allegations. The Supreme Court held that there was no obligation to verify the allegations and that the journalists had acted responsibly by publishing the allegations as part of an investigation into the allegations. The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal should not have interfered with the trial judge’s findings on the Reynolds privilege issue.