We’ve all read a crit of a show that makes us wince. Sometimes it must be tempting for the object of a bad review to take action to stop what could be seen to be bad publicity. However, the critic’s defence of “fair comment” has been recently been considered in a Northern Ireland case, after Ciarnan Convery’s Belfast restaurant called Goodfellas was subject to an unflattering review by The Irish New’s restaurant critic, Caroline Workman.

As a starting point, the press is seen to be “free” to publish what it likes, but that freedom is somewhat curtailed – especially by the rules relating to defamation.

Defamation is the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressively stated or implied to be factual, that may harm the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government or nation. Defences from claims of defamation include fair comment and justification.

Therefore it was important to distinguish statements of opinion (or comment) from statements of fact.

The review described the restaurant’s staff as unhelpful, its cola as flat and warm, and the chicken marsala “so sweet as to be inedible”. Taking each comment in turn, the appeal judge, the Northern Ireland Lord Chief Justice, distinguised between statements of fact and commentary:

“The cola was flat, warm and watery” – COMMENT

“The tomato, cucumber and shredded lettuce garnish was swimming with prawns in the bowl of sauce” – COMMENT

“The starters were of poor quality” – COMMENT

“The chips were pale, greasy and undercooked” – COMMENT

All despite the Irish News describing the above as “disputed matters of fact”!

So for a defence of fair comment to succeed:

• comment must be on a matter of public interest (not challenged here)
• words used must be an authentic comment (inferences drawn from facts may properly be regarded as comment)
• comment must be based on facts which are true
• it should be possible to identify the facts on which the comments are made (here, confusion existed, but the only facts were that the reviewer had visited the restaurant and had eaten there)
• the comment must be one which an honest person might make or genuinely held.

The threshold for fair comment would therefore be seen to be low – and easier for a critic to prove than a defence of justification.

For an example of a review you’d rather not receive, check out The Guardian’s review of Peter Pan el Musical!