In many circumstances, when a media organisation damages the reputation of an individual or company by expressing comments, this can be regarded as defamation. If the person or company is exposed to hatred following the defamatory comment or is reduced in someone’s expectations, the claimant is able to sue for slander or libel. It can be argued that the suing of a media organisation for defamation can be avoided with reference to current legislation. The latest legislation states that if sued for libel or slander there are some amended defences. Therefore, if a defamatory comment is made, it can be justified if the comment has amended defences, such as the truth, honest opinion, privilege or publication in the defence of public interest. However,…show more content… Although media organisations had an incline that Savile was committing sexual assault at the time, if Savile would have sued for libel and slander, the financial damages for media organisations would have been too great to afford. According to sources, in one case, “Former Sunday Mirror editor Paul Connew has revealed that the paper did not expose Jimmy Savile as a serial child sex offender in 1994 because it could not afford to lose a libel trial,” with the source further commenting, “Connew said the paper would have lost a defamation trial with Savile partly because the two victims who came to him, from Duncroft school, did not want to be named.” (Turvill 2013) Therefore, the law of defamation greatly impacted the work of journalists in this case study, as Jimmy Savile’s acts of sexual assault were not exposed earlier because the risk of defaming the individual was too great to…show more content… “Dee sued for defamation, arguing the piece exposed him to ridicule and could damage his ability to work in the tennis world in the future.” (Adams 2010) Despite Dee feeling ‘ridiculed’, The Daily Telegraph won the case as it could be proven that Dee was in fact the worst professional tennis player at this current time. Furthermore, displaying that defamation doesn’t always impact the work of journalists with the defence of
