The defence of honest comment

Joseph and others v Spiller and another [2010] UKSC 53, [2010] All ER (D) 16 (Dec); NLJ 10 December p1716

The members of a musical group known as ‘The Gillettes’ or ‘Saturday Night at the Movies’ fell out with their bookings agency who posted a notice on the website saying they were no longer representing the claimants stating that the claimants were ‘not professional enough to feature in our portfolio and have not been able to abide by the terms of their contract’ and advised others not to deal with them. The claimants brought proceedings in libel in respect of that notice. The defendants pleaded, inter-alia, the defence of fair comment. The High Court and Court of Appeal struck out the defence on that point and the defendants appealed.