Publication on Matter of Public Interest

Section 4 of the Defamation Act 2013 provides that 'it is a defence to an action for defamation for the defendant to show that (a) the statement complained of was, or formed part of, a statement on a matter of public interest; and (b) the defendant reasonably believed that publishing the statement complained of was in the public interest.' This replaced the older common law Reynolds defence, which the Act's Explanatory Notes confirm was abolished by section 4(6) once the statutory defence was intended to codify it.

The test combines an objective element (was the subject genuinely one of public interest?) with a subjective-but-checked element (did the defendant actually, and reasonably, believe publication was in the public interest?). Section 4(2) directs that 'in determining whether the defendant has shown the matters mentioned in subsection (1), the court must have regard to all the circumstances of the case', so no single factor — such as whether proper editorial checks were carried out — is automatically decisive; the court weighs the whole picture, much as it did under the old Reynolds 'responsible journalism' factors.