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Trial of information for defamatory libel.
6 & 7 Vict. c. 96. s. 6.
Evidence to rebut prima facie case of publication by agent.
6 & 7 Vict. c. 96. s. 7.
Right of prosecutor and of defendant to costs on prosecution for private libel.
6 & 7 Vict. c. 96, s. 8.
CAP. 21]
7.
Defamation
[1986 Ed.
(1) On the trial of any information for a defamatory libel, the defendant having pleaded such plea as is hereinafter mentioned, the truth of the matters charged may be inquired into, but shall not amount to a defence, unless it was for the public benefit that the matters charged should be published.
(2) To entitle the defendant to give evidence of the truth of the matters charged as a defence to the information, it shall be necessary for him, in pleading to the information, to allege the truth of the matters charged in the manner now required in alleging a justification to an action of defamation, and further to allege that it was for the public benefit that the matters charged should be published, and the particular fact or facts by reason whereof it was for the public benefit that the matters charged should be published, to which plea the prosecutor shall be at liberty to reply generally denying the whole thereof.
(3) If after such plea the defendant is convicted on the information, it shall be competent to the court, in pronouncing sentence, to consider whether the guilt of the defendant is aggravated or mitigated by the plea and by the evidence given to prove or to disprove the same:
Provided that-
(a) the truth of the matters charged in the alleged libel complained of by the information shall in no case be inquired into without such plea of justification;
(b) in addition to such plea it shall be competent to the defendant to plead a plea of not guilty;
(c) further, nothing in this Ordinance shall take away or prejudice any defence under a plea of not guilty which it is now competent to the defendant to make under such plea to any information for defamatory words or libel.
8. Whenever, on the trial of any information for the publication of a libel, under the plea of not guilty, evidence has been given which establishes a presumptive case of publication against the defendant by the act of any other person by his authority, it shall be competent to the defendant to prove that the publication was made without his authority, consent, or knowledge, and that the publication did not arise from want of due care or caution on his part.
9. (1) In the case of any information at the instance of a private prosecutor for the publication of any defamatory libel, if judgment is given for the defendant, he shall be entitled to recover from the prosecutor the costs sustained by the defendant by reason of the information, and upon a special plea of justification to the information, if the issue is found for the prosecutor, he shall be entitled to recover from the defendant the costs sustained by the prosecutor by reason of such plea.
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