Newspaper forced to pay £30,000 over printing of false Sophie Anderson story

I got this story in my twitter feed on Thursday and I've finally got round to blogging about it.

I am currently studying for a media law exam which deals with issues of libel, defamation and malice and I found this to be a good example of the law in action.

The Sunday Mirror was forced to pay out £30,000 after it published a story claiming model Sophie Anderton had been the victim of a 'vicious attack' in which she was so badly beaten, there were fears for her career.


Author Jose Rosengurtt . Original uploader was Rosengurtt at en.wikipedia


Property development consultant Ed Buxton launched the libel action as he claimed the article alleged that he was responsible for the attack.

The Mirror Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sunday Mirror, settled the action in the high court in London, admitting that the story was not true.

From studying media law, this is quite a simple case of defamation. Defined, defamation is any statement which will cause a person to lose or diminish their reputation, exposes the person to ridicule or hatred or causes them to shunned & avoided or lowers them in the minds of right thinking people of society.

Clearly in this case, the statement that Ed Buxton was responsible for these attacks would expose him to hatred and cause him to be shunned and avoided.

There are three main defences for publishing a libelous statement:

1. Justification i.e. the statement is true,
2. Fair comment in which it is believed the comment is true, it is based on fact and the statement has to be in the public interest.
3. Qualified Privilege (2 types)- Statutory QP gives protection to things reported from law courts, parliaments, local authorities etc but are subject to refutation.
Common Law QP gives protection to official bodies not mentioned in the statute. The reports need to be accurate, contemporaneous and without malice.

If it can be proved that a publication cant use any of these defences for why it published such a statement then a libel action can be taken against as in the Sophie Anderton case.