David Norris (Independent)

I move amendmentNo. 3:

In page 12, subsection (2), lines 3 and 4, to delete paragraph (f).

I oppose the inclusion of judges in the exemption from defamation. The Minister has strengthened my feeling on this matter when he talked about truth. Why would a judge want to lie about anybody? Judges should not make outrageous or untrue comments about anybody. After all, a judge should know better than anybody else the primacy of truth and the reason for telling it. In vigorous argument between the combatants in a court case or in a robust debate in this or the other House, I can understand it and there is an argument for protecting people by absolute privilege. Will the Minister explain why a judge would wish to libel somebody? What part of a judicial function is it to libel the ordinary citizen? A libel by a judge on a citizen in the course of a judgment which is protected is far more damaging.

Some people are of the opinion there should be a clear definition of defamation at the beginning of the Bill. It is defined in section 5(2) as:

. . . the publication, by any means, of a defamatory statement concerning a person to one or more than one person (other than the first-mentioned person)...

Why would judges wish to do this? I know it is a practice and the Minister probably is aware it is a practice. I am sure the Minister can remember back — I certainly can — to the days when Nell McCafferty was writing In the Eyes of the Law . A number of judges routinely and for the purposes of entertaining and diverting the audience in the court made the most appalling comments about people which if made outside a court probably would be libellous. We are just reciting a whole list of establishment figures who have to be protected. I do not see any reason to license the Judiciary to lie about the citizenry.