Newspaper Publishers and Online Comments – Newsquest held to be Not Liable
The High Court has ruled in favour of the Newspaper Publisher Newsquest and found it not to be liable for comments posted on its bulletin board which were removed as soon as a complaint was made.
Former Solicitor Imran Karim took libel action against Newsquest for comments posted on its website about the actions leading to him being struck off.
However Newsquest relied on the E-Commerce Regulations which states that a publisher is not responsible for content posted by a third party so long as the content is removed upon notification of it.
The court agreed with this approach and granted a summary judgment in the matter to avoid a full hearing.