Privy Council rejects defamation appeal

The Privy Council has dismissed an appeal by former Act MP Owen Jennings against a ruling that he defamed senior Wool Board official Roger Buchanan in 1997.

Mr Jennings was ordered by the High Court to pay Mr Buchanan $50,000 damages after it found he defamed Mr Buchanan in comments about the Wool Board sponsoring a Barbarians rugby team tour of Britain.

Mr Jennings appealed, but the decision was upheld last year in the Court of Appeal by a four-to-one majority. He then appealed to the Privy Council in London.

The case centred on comments Mr Jennings made in Parliament, under parliamentary privilege, which he later, outside Parliament, said that he did not resile from.

Mr Jennings argued that the words he used outside Parliament did not in themselves defame Mr Buchanan and any defamation case relied on his comments made in Parliament, which were protected by privilege.

But the Privy Council's judicial committee said that while statements made in Parliament were absolutely privileged, it was clear in law that repeating them or extending them outside Parliament could be defamatory.

What was at issue was whether Mr Jennings telling a news organisation he stood by his earlier comments, in itself constituted repeating the comments.

The committee found that it did.

Mr Jennings' comment that he did not resile from his original widely reported comments was likely to trigger readers' memories of the earlier comments to the extent that there was a "defamatory publication by adoption".

"A degree of circumspection is accordingly called for when a member of Parliament is moved or pressed to repeat out of Parliament a potentially defamatory statement previously made in Parliament. The board conceives that this rule is well understood, as evidenced by the infrequency of cases on the point."

Mr Jennings said he was extremely disappointed. He and his legal team had reviewed previous Privy Council decisions, which they felt supported their argument.

The Solicitor-General had also made submissions in his support.

Mr Jennings said the decision effectively lowered the bar of what could be considered repetition of a comment made under privilege, and in future MPs would have to be exceedingly careful when speaking outside Parliament.

The legal battle had been emotionally and financially draining, but it was now time to move on.

- NZPA