ABSTRACT
Answer To consider whether the law on defamation represents any restriction on free speech, we must consider what constitutes defamation and what defences to defamation exist in law.
Let us start by looking at those persons who can sue in defamation. The basic rule is that only living persons can sue, so no restrictions exist at all on freedom of speech as regards dead persons. However, in law, a company is a person and can sue for defamatory statements affecting its business (Metropolitan Saloon Omnibus Co v Hawkins (1859)). But it has been held by the House of Lords in Derbyshire County Council v Times Newspapers (1993) (overruling Bognor Regis Urban District Council v Campion (1972)) that a local authority cannot sue for libel as regards its governing reputation. In view of the question being answered, it is interesting to note that the House of Lords decided that to hold otherwise would impose a substantial and unjustifiable restriction on freedom of speech. Similarly, in Goldsmith v Bhoyrul (1997), the High Court
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held that a political party could not sue in libel, as it would be an unjustified restriction on freedom of speech.
