Law Notes: Libel Cases

Libel is the permanent/written form of a defamatory statement. If a statement about a person is defamatory it tends to do any one of the following:

• expose them to hatred or ridicule
  
• causes them to be shunned or avoided
• discredits them in their trade, business
• generally lowers them in the eyes of right thinking members of society.

Case one:

In 2001 Dr Joe Rahamim, a surgeon at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, sued Channel 4 and ITN for defamation.

In July 1998 Channel 4 News broadcast the following:

1. " First that Mr. Rahamim was probably responsible for the death or serious injury of many of his patients including two who had died during their operations.

2. Secondly that Mr Rahamim was not competent to practice as a consultant thoracic surgeon and that he was seriously under qualified and inadequately trained.

3. Thirdly that he had fraudulently obtained his post as a Consultant by misrepresenting his qualifications and employment history.

4. Fourthly that Mr. Rahamim had dishonestly sent out letters to local GP’s in which he had falsely described himself as an FRCS

5. Fifthly that he had dishonestly concealed from his employers the fact that as a result of injuries sustained in a road accident he was unable to operate safely and

6. Lastly that by reason of these matters the GMC ought to have Mr. Rahamim struck off."

(http://www.scts.org/doc/2026)

The surgeon believed that the news programme defamed him and was an unnessary attack on his professional and personal reputation.

Dr Joe Rahamim won his case and Channel 4 had to pay £100,000 in damages along with ITN who paid £75,000. They also had to cover his legal fees which were estimated to be £750,000! As well as this Channel 4 had to broadcast a retraction and apology on Channel 4 News.

Case two:



Britney Spears attempted to sue a US magazine (US Weekly) for $10 million in 2005 for libel after it had printed an article claiming that she and her husband (at the time) had made a sex tape.


The magazine reported that Britney was worried that "an x-rated tape starring the two of them might go public". It also reported that the couple showed the tape to their lawyers and "were acting goofy" when watching it with them.

Spears filed the suit after the magazine refused to print a retraction.

However the case was dropped as the judge ruled that the article wasn't defamatory and stated that "the plaintiff herself has put her modern sexuality squarely, and profitably, before the public eye."

She also pointed out how Spears and her husband had broadcast footage of themselves in the shower and often discussed sex throughout their reality television show "Choatic".

In this case Britney Spears' reputation was deemed unaffected by the printed article and so she lost her case.

Shocking pictures!

CCTV footage of a baby pram falling off a platform edge in to the path of an oncoming train has been released today. The pram was dragged for more than 30 metres by the braking train and was broken in to several pieces. Miraculously the 6 month old baby inside it survived with only a cut to the forehead.

How depressing is it to live in Britain right now?

This week's papers have revealed that, according to a recent study, Britain is the worst place to live in Europe!

Our quality of life is worse than many others across Europe despite the fact that we earn more money.

We work long hours and have relatively low holiday entitlement- apparently a key contributor to why Britain came last in the poll. As well as this this we have to contend with the rising costs of food, fuel and a lack of sunshine!



To top it all off our life expectancy is lower than the European average, meaning the French can expect to out live us by two years!

If this has depressed you to the point of no return you could always decide to move to the countries that sit at the top of the poll such as France and Spain. According the Daily Mail, a lot of Brits have already made the move for these reasons. So perhaps it will be "bon voyage" for you?

Does religion belong in a science class?

Here is a clip of the latest ramblings from Bill O'Reilly as he argues with the British evolutionary biologist and theorist Richard Dawkins.

Infuriatingly wrong or fair points?

Decide for yourself:

District 9: sci-fi, drama, action, thriller!

Even if you would never consider watching a Sci-fi I strongly recommend that you to go watch 'District 9' and quickly whilst its still showing at the cinema!

If someone asked me "What do you think of Science-fiction films?" I'd ponder for a while and think about films of this genre that had made a good enough impression to stay in my memory. They merely consist of 'Ghost busters', 'Independence Day' and 'Mars Attacks'- not really the serious sort of stuff one might consider to fall under this genre and ones which would probably lead to me to say "they're OK but I'm not a great fan". There have been others, its just that I clearly got distracted when watching them because that's the sort of impatient git that I am.

However I can now say that I have watched a brilliant Sci-fi film which had so many layers that I was deeply engrossed from the very beginning until the very end!

'District 9' has everything you could ever want from a film and more. Firstly it's not shot in the USA!! We don't have to listen to the screams of the White House or of any annoying American civilians- hurrah! It is, in fact, shot in Johannesburg which is an instantly refreshing change from the Hollywood scene.

Instead of conforming to the stereotypical narrative of humans VS aliens this is a tale of refugee aliens arriving on Earth and then being segregated off in a shanty town by the government. They have to deal with being treated as the lowest of the low and are derogatively dubbed as "prawns" as they are bottom-feeding scavengers who root around for food. The movie highlights many of the socio political issues that surrounds the modern day South Africa such as xenophobia, racism and segregation and also depicts the nasty side of capitalism.

'District 9' is partly shot in a faux-documentary style featuring fake interviews, CCTV and video footage from news networks throughout which cleverly adds a sense of realism to it. The CGI is fantastic and the aliens look extremely realistic.

All in all this film is full of action, gore and will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride that you never thought possible from a film about aliens!