Publication of Other People's Opinions Following legal arguments on a jury's findings, Mr. Justice Hawke, in the King's Bench Division gave judgment, with costs, for the "Daily Express" in the libel action brought by Mr, Patrick Mulley, author of "Jackets Green."
He said that the suggestion at the trial was that the newspaper had repeated a professor's comment and was therefore responsible for it. The jury found that the defence of fair comment, being comment on facts truly stated. was established, and he thought that that ended the case.
"In my opinion," he said, "newspapers are not confined merely to reporting criticisms by their own servants. If they report the opinions of other people and can show that the opinions of those persons were perfectly honest and were fair. newspapers are protected by the plea of fair comment just as much as if their. own servant had advanced the criticism, always assuming that it is a matter of public interest."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.