The Law of Libel Amendment Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c.64) was an act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, clarifying and "amplifying" the defence of

qualified privilege The defence of qualified privilege permits a person in a position of authority or trust to make statements or relay or report statements that would be considered slander and libel if made by anyone else. In New Zealand and Ontario, for instance, ...

(and potentially a degree of

absolute privilege Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

, though this was not made clear in the statute itself) in cases involving the verbatim reproduction of court proceedings, the minutes of select committees, police notices or various other specifically recognised kinds of meetings, which had, in vaguer terms, been laid out in the

Newspaper Libel and Registration Act 1881 The Newspaper Libel and Registration Act 1881 (44 & 45 Vict. c.60) was an act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Introduced as a Private Member's Bill, it reduced the legislative burden on newspaper proprietors with regard to the of ...

. The Act itself was lobbied for by the Provincial Newspapers Group; it was taken up by eight Members of Parliament with direct connections to the press, among them Sir

Algernon Borthwick Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk JP (27 December 1830 – 24 November 1908), known as Sir Algernon Borthwick, Bt, between 1887 and 1895, was a British journalist and Conservative politician. He was the owner of the ''Morning Post'' (which m ...

, Sir

Albert Rollit Sir Albert Kaye Rollit (1842 – 12 August 1922) was a British politician, lawyer, and businessman. Career Born in Hull, he became a solicitor and went on to become president of the Law Society. He later became a shipowner. He was Mayor of H ...

Harry Lawson Harry Lawson may refer to: *Harry John Lawson (1852–1925), British bicycle designer, cyclist, motor industry pioneer and fraudster *Harry Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham (1862–1933) *Sir Harry Lawson (politician) (1875–1952), Australian pol ...

Louis Jennings Louis John Jennings (12 May 1836 – 9 February 1893) was an English journalist and Conservative politician. Jennings was born in Walworth, London, the son of John Jennings, a tailor, and his wife Sarah Michel. Following a period with the '' S ...

, Charles Cameron, and

John Morley John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, (24 December 1838 – 23 September 1923) was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. Initially, a journalist in the North of England and then editor of the newly Liberal-leani ...

. It was first presented on 10 February 1888 and, after much revision, received

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

on 24 December. Sections 3 and 4 were responsible for clarifying the extent of qualified privilege, "amplifying" the extension set out in section 2 of the

, which it repealed. Specifically, section 3 of the 1888 clarified that a newspaper proprietor could not be found liable for a "fair and accurate report" of court proceedings, although whether this amounted to qualified or absolute privilege was not made clear at the time. Section 4, building on the vaguer language of the 1881 Act, gave an enumerated list of cases when the defence of qualified privilege could now be used, including "any meeting of a vestry, town council, school board, board of guardians, board or local authority formed or constituted under the provisions of any Act of Parliament, or of any committee appointed by any of the above-mentioned bodies". An additional requirement placed upon proprietors wishing to claim immunity was that they be responsive to demands for a printed correction or the error in subsequent issues of the newspaper, the definition of which was inherited from the 1881 Act. Exemptions in both sections 3 and 4 existed for blasphemous libel. Section 5 allowed for the consolidation of libel actions involving the same libel against different defendants, saving on legal costs and preventing inconsistency of ruling, whilst section 8 repealed section 3 of the 1881 Act ("No prosecution for newspaper libel without fiat of Attorney General") replacing it with the condition that no "proprietor, publisher, editor or any person responsible for the publication of a newspaper" (not including journalists) be sued (or indeed tried) for libel without the order of a High Court judge. Little of the Act is still in force, as of 2012. Section 4, for example was repealed except in cases of

criminal libel Criminal libel is a legal term, of English origin, which may be used with one of two distinct meanings, in those common law jurisdictions where it is still used. It is an alternative name for the common law offence which is also known (in order ...

by the

Defamation Act 1952 The Defamation Act 1952 (15 & 16 Geo 6 & 1 Eliz 2 c 66) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This Act implemented recommendations contained in the Report of the Porter Committee. The recommendation made by the Committee in relatio ...

(and the Defamation Act 1955 in Northern Ireland), which also extended section 5 to cover both libel and

slander Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

and section 3 to cover broadcast as well as print media. Section 3 was finally repealed by section 16 and Schedule 2 of the

Defamation Act 1996 The Defamation Act 1996 (c 31) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 4 - Limitation of actions: England and Wales This section substitutes sections 4A, 28(4A), 32A and 36(1)(aa) of the Limitation Act 1980. Section 5 - Limi ...

, which also removed blasphemous libel as a special case from section 4. The Act never applied to Scotland.

References

External links

* {{UK-LEG United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1888 Media legislation English defamation law