A defamation claim against Guardian News & Media, based on an alleged implication of homosexuality, has been struck out.
In a judgment handed down today, Mr Justice Johnson struck out a claim for libel against Guardian News and Media (“GNM”), and entered summary judgment for GNM. The claim related to an article which reported on the murder of a gay man in Afghanistan. The Claimant, a national of Afghanistan, alleged that a photograph published with the article depicted him and that readers would thereby have identified him as the subject of the article, notwithstanding that he was still alive. The Claimant’s case was that the article bore the defamatory meanings that there were reasonable grounds to suspect that the Claimant was homosexual and was in a homosexual relationship.
Mr Justice Johnson held that there was no realistic prospect that the Claimant would succeed in showing that the article referred to him, that it was defamatory at common law or that its publication had caused, or was likely to cause, serious harm to his reputation. The Judge observed that this was the first modern authority in this jurisdiction to consider whether it is defamatory at common law to allege that a claimant is homosexual.
Ben Silverstone was instructed for the Defendant, Guardian News & Media.
The judgment can be found here.