Privy Council: Pinard-Byrne v Linton, Hearing of Defamation Appeal in “Reynolds” case

As we noted in our weekly Law and Media Round Up, on 22 April 2015 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council heard a libel appeal from Dominica in the case of Pinard-Byrne v Linton. The plaintiff is seeking to overturn a judgment of the the Court of Appeal of the Commonwealth of Dominica that the publications were protected by Reynolds qualified privilege (25 March 2013 [pdf]).

The video feed of most of the hearing has been uploaded to Vimeo and we thought that it would be of interest to our readers.  A number of interesting comments are made by the Judges in the course of hearing concerning the limits and operation of Reynolds qualified privilege.

This is the first part of the morning session, with Adam Speker representing the appellant

This is the second part of the morning session with William Bennett acting as an amicus and the respondent, Mr Linton in person.

This is the afternoon session with Mr Linton and Adam Speker’s reply.

The judicial committee reserved judgment.