The appeal in Salman Iqbal v Geo TV Limited, in which the Court of Appeal will consider the important defence of qualified privilege under s.15 of the Defamation Act 1996, is to be heard on Tuesday, 5 November 2024. The appeal will consider the correct approach to ‘public interest’ and ‘public benefit’ under s.15(3), malice under s.15(1), and whether live footage can be a ‘report’, among other issues.
The appeal is in a defamation claim brought over live coverage and subsequent reports of statements made by the prominent Pakistani politician Maryam Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan, broadcast in this jurisdiction by the Appellant on GEO News, an Urdu language news channel. The Respondent, Salman Iqbal, is the founder and president of the ARY network, which also provides Urdu news content to the UK.
The Appellant applied for summary judgment on the defence of statutory qualified privilege under s.15 of the 1996 Act. In a decision handed down on 27 November 2023, ([2023] EWHC 3024 (KB)) HHJ Lewis determined that the broadcasts were fair and accurate reports of proceedings at a public meeting but that he could not fairly determine summarily that they were of public interest and public benefit for the purposes of s.15(3), and that this overlapped with the issue of malice such that that issue should also not be determined summarily.
The Appellant was granted permission to appeal on the grounds that the Judge should not have ruled that the issues of whether or not the publication was of public interest and benefit or that there was an arguable case on malice were ones which required resolution at trial, and on the ground that the appeal raises an important point of principle as to the correct interpretation of s.15.
The Court of Appeal also directed that the Respondent, while not requiring permission to appeal, could argue that the case is one which is overall unsuitable for summary judgment, that the Judge’s reasons for dismissing the application were only partially adequate, and that the Judge was wrong in resolving factual points against the Respondent summarily.
A panel of Lord Justice Underhill, Vice-President of the Court of Appeal (Civil Division), Lord Justice Dingemans and Lord Justice Warby will hear the appeal. The hearing is being livestreamed by the Court of Appeal here.
5RB’s Adam Speker KC and Richard Munden, instructed by Carter-Ruck, represent the Defendant/Appellant, GEO TV Limited, and Jonathan Barnes KC and Gervase de Wilde, instructed by Gresham Legal, represent the Claimant/Respondent, Salman Iqbal.