Alex White (Labour)

I move amendmentNo.13:

In page 18, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following subsection:

"(2) The court may regard an apology as effecting a substantial mitigation of damage if, but only if, it is made within 14 days of complaint being made in respect of the utterance to which the apology relates, and if the defendant's proposals for publication of the apology are reasonable.".

This takes us into the area of apologies. I agree with the Minister's earlier comment that to achieve the balance sought by this legislation it is a priority to ensure that media organisations publish apologies as appropriate and would do so "readily". This is desirable.

My default position in this debate is to favour the widest possible latitude for freedom of expression, consistent with the protection of the good name of an individual. Where there is a clash it is for us to determine where to strike the balance. An apology when appropriate should be timely and expeditious. There is little point in giving protection to defendants who delay publication of an apology because the impact of a libel is felt most acutely in the hours, days or weeks after publication. The longer the aggrieved person has to wait the less impact the apology will have.

In this amendment we regard mitigation as substantial mitigation. If an apology is not published within the timeframe that we propose, we would not exclude the possibility of mitigation being associated with late apologies but it would not be substantial mitigation. We would be flexible in a discussion of the timeframe. There could be some mitigation for a late apology but not substantial mitigation. This is consistent with the Minister's comment about apologies being published readily.