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United Kingdom
Defamation—England and Wales: reply-to-attack qualified privilege not displaced by ‘reply-to-retort’; dominant-motive malice plea fails; summary judgment for mosque trustees (Abdulrazaq v Hassan)
Published on: 04 January 2022
Published by a LexisNexis TMT expertLegal News
Article summary
Abdulrazaq and others v Hassan and others [2021] EWHC 3252 (QB)
What are the practical implications of this case?
The judgment’s central interest lies in its treatment of the claimants’ contention that the impugned words were not, in truth, a reply issued by the defendants to an attack from the claimant. Rather, the claimants advanced that those words amounted to a riposte to an attack they had themselves published in expectation of a likely assault by the defendants (that is, a riposte to a reply published in anticipation). On that basis, the claimants said the privilege ought not to extend to the defendants’ riposte to the claimants’ attack/anticipated reply. Typically, reply-to-attack privilege does not cover the initial publication—the attack—but does protect the reply, irrespective of whether the first publication is defamatory. The claimants maintained that a riposte to a predicted attack should fall outside the privilege. Their position failed on the evidence, yet the judge went on to remark upon the issue. He indicated that, had it been necessary to decide the legal question, after further reflection on this point, and considering the same issue within the framework described, together with its application to these circumstances, he would either have...
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