Media and speech

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1972

Principle established: Where words can carry meanings beyond the dictionary sense, the claimant must set them out in the pleadings.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1966

Principle established: Words are read in their natural and ordinary meaning, as reasonable people would understand them (Diplock LJ).

Sierra Leone — Court of Appeal · 1961

Principle established: Selling a single copy of a newspaper does not constitute dispersing it under the Newspapers Ordinance, but selling one copy while possessing others for sale amounts to an attempt to disperse.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1961

Principle established: Selling an isolated copy of a newspaper does not constitute dispersing or assisting in dispersing a newspaper under the Newspapers Ordinance.

Sierra Leone — African Law Reports · 1920-36

Principle established: Words imputing professional incompetence, financial bankruptcy, or dishonourable conduct to a professional person are defamatory and actionable per se.

Sierra Leone — African Law Reports · 1920-36

Principle established: Damages for defamation are categorized into contemptuous, nominal, substantial, and exemplary awards depending on plaintiff injury, conduct, and the necessity of vindication.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1844

Principle established: Imputing a venereal disease was slander actionable per se.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1826

Principle established: It is enough that people who know the claimant would understand the words refer to him.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1949

Principle established: Calling a man 'a bastard, a liar and a cheat' was not actionable per se.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1937

Principle established: The standard is right-thinking members of society generally, not a particular group.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1972

Principle established: Confirmed Rookes v Barnard's categories. Publishing a libel to make a profit can justify exemplary damages.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1929

Principle established: Innocent intention is no defence; what matters is how readers understand the words.

Sierra Leone — African Law Reports · 1967-68

Principle established: A court cannot enter a not guilty plea of its own volition and discharge an accused without trial, nor is republication defamatory if it merely attributes statements to a named informant.

Sierra Leone — Court of Appeal · 1967

Principle established: A trial court has no authority on its own initiative to enter a plea of not guilty and discharge an accused without trial.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1834

Principle established: Saying 'you have committed an act for which I can put you in prison' was actionable per se.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1829

Principle established: Repeating someone else's defamatory words is a fresh publication; wrong is not justified by wrong (Best CJ).

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1878

Principle established: Privilege in self-defence covers repelling charges, not making fresh accusations.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1910

Principle established: Intention is irrelevant to identification.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1858

Principle established: If a man wrote that all lawyers were thieves, no particular lawyer could sue (Willes J).

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1885

Principle established: A distributor who did not know of the libel, had no reason to suspect it, and was not negligent in not knowing, has the defence of innocent dissemination.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1843

Principle established: Hissing an actor off the stage by arrangement was treated as slander, a transient form of defamation.

Sierra Leone — African Law Reports · 1967-68

Principle established: A defendant acting within the scope of a privileged occasion without indirect or improper motives is protected from liability for defamation, and mere anger or hurt pride does not establish malice.

Sierra Leone — Court of Appeal · 1967

Principle established: An occasion of qualified privilege protects a publisher who writes with just cause and excuse, and hurt feelings or passion do not suffice to prove actionable malice.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1975

Principle established: Malice means using the privileged occasion for an improper purpose, such as spite or personal advantage. Honest belief in the truth of the statement is normally enough to keep the privilege, however irrational the belief.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1915

Principle established: Publication requires communication to a third party that the defendant intended or could foresee.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1952

Principle established: Fair comment was available where the facts commented on were sufficiently indicated.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1944

Principle established: Words must be understood to refer to the claimant; a statement about a large group does not refer to each member.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1964

Principle established: Words are read as the ordinary reasonable reader, neither unusually suspicious nor naive, would understand them (Lord Reid).

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1969

Principle established: Public interest covers matters affecting people at large (Lord Denning).

South Africa · 2022

Principle established: Publication of false and defamatory allegations regarding the misappropriation of state resources is unlawful and may warrant an interdict for removal and a public retraction.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1894

Principle established: Libel can be in any permanent form, such as a statue or effigy (Lopes LJ).

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1971

Principle established: Identification depends on what reasonable readers with knowledge of the circumstances would understand.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1940

Principle established: A statement true of one person can defame another reasonably taken to be meant.

Lanbuk on the Law of Torts · 1974

Principle established: In libel, damage is presumed; the claimant need not prove actual loss.

Ghana · 2026

Principle established: To succeed in a defamation claim, the plaintiff must meet essential thresholds to balance the protection of reputation against the right to free expression.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1962

Principle established: Published statements and photographs that disparage a trader's business conduct and injure personal reputation by imputing unlawful acts are actionable as libel.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1962

Principle established: Publications imputing illegal activities, smuggling, and moral misconduct against a businessperson constitute actionable libel, justifying substantial damages and injunctions.

Sierra Leone — Supreme Court · 1962

Principle established: Publishing false and derogatory imputations regarding a person's commercial integrity and personal character constitutes libel and entitles the plaintiff to damages and injunctive relief.

Sierra Leone — African Law Reports · 1964-66

Principle established: A published statement may still be legally defamatory even though accompanied by an express disclaimer of belief by the writer or publisher.

Sierra Leone — African Law Reports · 1964-66

Principle established: In determining whether a political publication is seditious, the court must construe the work as a whole with due regard for press freedom, rather than focusing solely on objectionable excerpts.