Page 76 - Law and the Media
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Blasphemy, Seditious Libel and Criminal Libel
2. The defendant will also have a good defence if the words were published under absolute
or qualified privilege.
In the absence of recent authoritative cases on the point, it is perhaps arguable whether fair
comment can be successfully pleaded in answer to a criminal libel charge.
2.4.3 Penalties
A person who publishes a libel knowing it to be false may be sentenced to a fine and a period
of imprisonment (Section 4 of the Libel Act 1843). A publisher who did not know a libel was
false may also be sentenced to a fine and a sentence of imprisonment (Section 5 of the Libel
Act 1843).
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