The fair and accurate reporting of court proceedings has long been protected from libel action by the defence of privilege. Contemporaneous fair and accurate reports of court proceedings in public are now protected by absolute privilege and other fair and accurate reports by qualified privilege. In the former case no libel action can be brought, in the latter an action will only succeed if malice is proved.
But what about reports of documents which were placed before the court but which were not read out in open court? Surprisingly, the position remains unclear. Nevertheless, despite the absence of clear statutory or judicial guidance I believe that there is a strong argument that fair and accurate reports of such documents would attract the same privilege as reports of what is actually said in court.
