Maurice Hayes (Independent)

I move amendment No. 23:

In page 22, subsection (1), line 4, after "statement" to insert the following:

"and to give due prominence to the correction order such as will ensure that it is communicated to all or substantially all of those persons to whom the defamatory statement is published".

I do not mind what form of words is used but this amendment seeks proportionality and timeliness in the issuing of an apology. If a libel was on a newspaper's front page in stark headlines, the apology should not be published months later, tucked away among the classified advertisements. That part is common cause. The other part about which I am concerned is partially addressed by a Government amendment. It concerns putting a judge in the position of editing a newspaper. He or she specifies the time, place and order of publication, which has no regard for the manner in which newspapers are produced or what might happen in the circumstances. Imagine the judge said that it had to publish something in the top left-hand corner of page 1 on 14 January.