View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
July 10, 2003updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Judge rules Observer’s Keays piece was comment

By Press Gazette

By Roger Pearson

The High Court has paved the way for Guardian Newspapers to mount a “fair comment” defence to a libel action brought against The Observer by Sara Keays, the mother of former Tory minister Cecil Parkinson’s love-child.

When Flora Keays, the daughter of Keays and Parkinson, turned 18, The Observer carried a comment piece headed “The mother of all women scorned”, which branded Sara Keays as “a preposterous piece of work” and quoted Edwina Currie as having once described her as “a right cow”.

Sara Keays launched a libel action, complaining that the piece indicated that she had cynically exploited her handicapped daughter, that she lied when she claimed justification for the media publicity after Flora’s 18th birthday and that she had given a “kiss-and-tell” story to The Times in a bid to exact revenge on Parkinson.

However, Mr Justice Eady said all he was being asked to decide was whether the piece was comment.

Ruling that it was, he said: “The article is in pungent and offensive terms, but it is recognised that hard-hitting comments may be made on matters of public interest without the author being hobbled by the constraints of conventional good manners.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

He said for the purpose of deciding whether it could be categorised as comment, he did not have to decide whether it was fair or written maliciously. The question was whether the article by Carol Sarler “carried an unmistakable badge of comment”.

“Here, not only was the article in the Comment section of the newspaper, but Miss Sarler was obviously making her observations on the topical subject of the media publicity of the previous week,” he said. “She was not asserting any of her inferences as new and independent fact. Any reader would be aware this was so.”

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network