ABSTRACT
Right thinking members of society The test for defamation is whether the plaintiff would be lowered in the eyes of ‘right thinking members of society’. In Byrne v Dean (1937), it was alleged that a lampoon was defamatory because it accused the plaintiff of ‘sneaking’ to the police about unlawful gambling in his club. The action of the club committee in allowing the lampoon to remain on the notice board did not constitute defamation, since members of society would not be right thinking if they thought it defamatory to say that a man had discharged his public duty to help suppress crime.
