Libel in Books Available to Purchase

IN the absence of a comprehensive judicial pronouncement it is difficult to define a libel. It has been defined as “a writing tending to injure and degrade the character of the person who is the object of it” (Lord Campbell) and also as “a publication without justification or excuse, which is calculated to injure the reputation of another by exposing him to hatred, ridicule or contempt” (Baron Parke). The material part of a cause of action in libel is not the writing but the publication of the libel. “Publication” means “the making known the defamatory matter after it has been written to some person other than the person of whom it is written” (Pullman v. Hill and Co. [1891] 1 Q.B. 527). Again, in Hulton & Co. v. Jones ([1910] A.C.23), Lord Loreburn said “Libel is a tortious act. It consists in using language which others knowing the circumstances would reasonably think to be defamatory of the person complaining of and injured by it.”