Joseph v Spiller

This case concerns a dispute over a defamatory statement published on the defendant's website. The plaintiffs, members of a musical act, brought an action against the defendant, an entertainment booking service, over a post published on the latter's website. The post alleged that the plaintiffs were unprofessional and could not be trusted to honour their contractual obligations. The trial judge struck out the defence of fair comment, which the defendants sought to rely on. The Court of Appeal upheld this decision. The defendants appealed to the Supreme Court.

The legal issues in this case were: (1) whether the defendants could rely on matters to which they made no reference in their comment in support of their plea of fair comment, and (2) whether the matters to which the defendants did refer in their comment were capable of sustaining a defence of fair comment.

The Supreme Court held that the defence of fair comment should be renamed "honest comment" and that it should not be necessary for the comment to identify the facts upon which it was based, provided that those facts were sufficiently indicated. The Court also held that the defendants could rely on matters to which they made no reference in their comment, if those matters were sufficiently indicated in the comment and were matters of public interest.

The Court allowed the appeal, reinstated the defence of fair comment, and remitted the case to the Court of Appeal for further consideration.