Privilege, Qualified and Absolute.

Privilege is the legal allowance for defamatory or untrue statements to be published, protecting the publisher from any legal action.

There are two types of privilege, Qualified and Absolute.

Absolute privilege applies in court, and allows the events of a trial to be published, provided the reports are fair, accurate and contemporaneous.

Qualified privilege protects areas of public concern, such as meetings of public bodies. This provision requires reporting to be fair, accurate and without malice.

The ‘without malice’ element here is crucial. Privilege will not apply if the published material contains any malice, and so it is important that any piece published is balanced, to prevent unintended bias.  

Privilege only applies in certain circumstances within these events. For example, privilege covers what is said within the events of a council meeting, but anything said privately, either prior to or after the meeting, is not covered by privilege, and therefore may not be publishable. 

Where privilege does apply, and the guidelines are correctly followed, it is a great allowance for journalists to publish material they would not otherwise be able to, and report in detail on matters of importance.