1923_DEFAMATION_AND_LIBEL_ORDINANCE__1887 — Page 3

362

[ef. No. 2 of

1865, s. 15;

No. 1 of 1887.

DEFAMATION AND LIBEL.

of profit or trust, shall be liable to imprisonment for any No. 5 of 1865, term not exceeding three years: Provided that nothing herein contained shall in any manner alter or affect any law or No. 6 of 1865, Ordinance now in force in respect of the sending or delivery

of threatening letters or writings.

s. 32;

s. 41, etc.]

Publishing false defamatory

libel. 6 & 7 Vict.

c. 96, s. 4.

Publishing

libel.

6. Every person who maliciously publishes any defamatory libel, knowing the same to be false, shall be liable to imprisonment, without hard labour, for any term not exceed- ing two years, and, in addition, to pay such fine as the court may award.

7. Every person who maliciously publishes any defamatory defamatory libel shall be liable to imprisonment, without hard labour, for any term not exceeding one year, and to pay such fine as the court may award.

6 & 7 Vict. c. 96, s. 5.

Trial of information

for.

8.(1) 'On the trial of any information for a defamatory libel, the defendant having pleaded such plea as is hereinafter defamatory 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.

libel, 6 & 7 Vict. c. 96, s. 6.

(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 pronounc- ing 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 the truth of the matters charged in the alleged libel complained of by the information shall in no case be inquired into with- out such plea of justification: Provided, also, that in addi- tion to such plea it shall be competent to the defendant to plead a plea of not guilty: Provided, further, that nothing in this Ordinance shall take away or prejudice any defence