Bosch v "Friend" Printing and Publishing Co and Others [1908] ZAHCORC 13 (6 April 1908)

Libel.-Justifi,aation.-Publia benefit.

Where an action for libel was instituted by B against F, the proprietors and publishers of a newspaper, and others, on the ground that F had published in a report of a public meeting the words of one of the speakers describing B as a pest of society, while his criminal trial for attempted extortion was pending, and two leading articles had appeared in F's newspaper in support of that speaker, Held, that the words used were true in substance and in fact, and that as R (from whom B had made the attempt to extort money for which he had been on his trial) was a candidate for Parliament, the publication was for the public benefit.