BY 16:17 TIB(OOU) HK GOVT
llegation of falsity not enough
ANCREASE READY WAS ELSKERKETA JANA, PIASTAL GOA ZİKALARIN
Examples have been given of instances where a prosecution
might be brought against a publication which had published the results of an investigation which the Government finds inconvenient. [The example of the Watergate investigation was given a
1.]
P.14
It has to be remembered that the truth does not become a lie simply because a person or organisation, even a Government, says it is a lie. In the unlikely event that a prosecuting authority – in this oase the Attorney-General launched a prosecution in such a osse,
the prosecution case would almost inevitably fail because it would be
impossible difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt (a heavy burden
wal
of proof) that the report was falae. Further, the near certainty of the failure of the prossoution on that point would make it highly unlikely that sugh a prosecution would be brought at all because its failure would achieve precisely the result that the Government would wish to avoid, namely the confirmation of the truth of the report. Henbere with a literary turn of mind may recall that that is what happened to Öscar Wilde when be sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel for
saying rude things about hing the result of the failure of that libel
sation was that he himself was prosecuted, convicted and sent to
prison.