Absolute privilege is a complete defence to an action for defamation in English law. If the defence of absolute privilege applies it is irrelevant that a defendant has acted with malice, knew information was false or acted solely to damage the reputation of the plaintiff.[1] Absolute privilege can be deployed in a narrow range of cases. Statements made in judicial proceedings are protected as are communications between a solicitor and their client. The Bill of Rights of 1689 provides that proceedings of the Parliament of the United Kingdom are also covered by absolute privilege.
Reports of court proceedings
Sections 14(1) to (3) of the Defamation Act 1996 read:
(1) A fair and accurate report of proceedings in public before a court to which this section applies, if published contemporaneously with the proceedings, is absolutely privileged.
(2) A report of proceedings which by an order of the court, or as a consequence of any statutory provision, is required to be postponed shall be treated as published contemporaneously if it is published as soon as practicable after publication is permitted.
(3) This section applies to—In paragraph (a) "court" includes any tribunal or body exercising the judicial power of the State.[2]
- (a) any court in the United Kingdom,
- (b) the European Court of Justice or any court attached to that court,
- (c) the European Court of Human Rights, and
- (d) any international criminal tribunal established by the Security Council of the United Nations or by an international agreement to which the United Kingdom is a party.
The defence under this section is excluded by section 8(6) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (as amended by subsection (4) of this section).
Section 14 replaces section 3 of the Law of Libel Amendment Act 1888 and section 8 of the Defamation Act 1952.
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