Spindle
Member
- Country
England
Precendents
1. The Core Precedent for "Bane and Antidote"
1. The Core Precedent for "Bane and Antidote"
- Charleston v News Group Newspapers Ltd [1995]
- The Case: A tabloid printed a fake, digitally superimposed image of two Neighbours actors' faces on near-naked, pornographic bodies. The headline was highly provocative. However, the accompanying text explicitly stated that the actors were innocent victims of a cyber-hoax.
- The Ruling: The House of Lords rejected the actors' defamation claim. The court ruled that the text (the antidote) completely neutralized the shocking image (the bane). A reader who only looked at the image and headline could not claim defamation because the law assumes the ordinary reasonable reader reads the context as a whole.
- Application to Marinakis: Crystal Palace's lawyers will argue the text explicitly saying "is not involved in..." serves as a total, simultaneous antidote to the shocking imagery
- Pitman v Jersey Evening Post [2012]
- The Case: A newspaper published a satirical cartoon depicting two local politicians surrounded by stacks of banknotes with the caption "4x the salary darling!", implying they were greedy "money grabbers".
- The Ruling: The court dismissed the defamation claim. The judge ruled that the ordinary reasonable reader understands the hyperbolic and comedic nature of political cartoons and does not read them as literal statements of fact. Crucially, the court noted that public figures must be more robust and resilient in the face of satire than private citizens.
- Application to Marinakis: As a highly visible, powerful football club owner and global shipping magnate, the court will expect Marinakis to have a much higher threshold for tolerating aggressive fan satire