{"id":6329,"date":"2018-03-07T09:26:55","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T09:26:55","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-06-17T14:52:46","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T14:52:46","slug":"berkoff-v-burchill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/berkoff-v-burchill.php","title":{"rendered":"Berkoff v Burchill – 1996"},"content":{"rendered":"

Berkoff v Burchill and another [1996] 4 All ER 1008; [1997] EMLR 139<\/strong><\/p>\n

Libel; newspaper article; meaning capable of being defamatory<\/p>\n

(303 words)<\/p>\n

Facts<\/h3>\n

The first defendant was a journalist and, at the time, a film critic for the Sunday Times<\/em>, while the second defendant was the newspaper\u2019s publisher. In one review, the first defendant described the claimant (among others) as being \u2018notoriously hideous-looking\u2019, and in another as \u201conly marginally better-looking than the creature in Frankenstein\u201d<\/em>. The claimant sued for libel.<\/p>\n

Issues<\/h3>\n

The claimant argued that the above statements were defamatory in that they exposed him to ridicule, or alternatively, they would cause others to avoid him. The defendants question the capability of the statements to be defamatory. The trial judge found in favour of the claimant, so the defendants appealed.<\/p>\n

Decision\/Outcome<\/h3>\n

The Court of Appeal dismissed the defendants\u2019 appeal. Firstly, it held that the while one cannot satisfactorily define the word \u2018defamatory\u2019, words that do not imply disgraceful conduct or lack of business efficiency can still be defamatory if they cause the claimant to be subject to ridicule, contempt or exclusion from society. However, insults not attacking a person\u2019s standing in society cannot constitute libel (the borderline is hardly definable). Secondly, claiming that someone was ugly was different from attacking someone based on his physical condition, where the latter were statement of fact. Calling a person ugly was a subjective perception and no right-minded person would exclude another purely based on the subjective perception of a third person. Thus, the statement as to the claimant\u2019s ugly appearance was not defamatory. Thirdly, however, the defendants\u2019 statements exposed the claimant to ridicule in light of the actual words used and the actual circumstances in which they were used. Calling someone ugly may be an expression of an opinion (and thus not defamatory) or it may be said with the intention to expose a person to ridicule (and thus defamatory) \u2013 in the present case it was the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first defendant was a journalist and, at the time, a film critic for the Sunday Times, while the second defendant was the newspaper\u2019s publisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-6329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-uk-law"],"yoast_head":"\nBerkoff v Burchill - 1996 | LawTeacher.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The first defendant was a journalist and, at the time, a film critic for the Sunday Times, while the second defendant was the newspaper\u2019s publisher.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/berkoff-v-burchill.php\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Berkoff v Burchill - 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