Who may claim a correction in respect of a news report, and on whose behalf may a public body or organisation make that claim?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In the practice file, we read the published report itself to see whether its content is a factual claim, the paper showing when the report and the date it was learned of, and the instrument under which the head of the body or organisation claims to act.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading gathers the three paragraphs together: a person who has suffered harm because a news report on a factual claim is untrue may claim a correction from the news company, internet news service operator or internet multimedia broadcasting business within the period the provision sets from learning of the report, unless the period from the report itself has passed, while the head of a state body, local government, agency or organisation may claim for matters within its work, representing that body or organisation.
Another reading marks the limits on the third and fourth paragraphs: for an agency or organisation without party capacity under the Civil Procedure Act, its head may claim under the paragraph on entities without party capacity only where the body constitutes a single unit of living and has a direct interest in the reported content, so an entity meeting only one of those two conditions falls outside that paragraph, while the paragraph letting a head claim for the body's own work still applies.
Your judgment
Where the head of an organisation claims a correction, what in the file could show that the organisation forms a single unit of living and holds a direct interest in the reported content?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change which persons or bodies may claim a correction, or if a decision explains what counts as a single unit of living and a direct interest.