DEFAMATION



Accreditation - degrees - hypnosis - justification - libel

Paul McKenna v MGN Ltd: QBD (Mr Justice Eady): 28 July 2006



Hypnotherapist (M) brought a claim for libel in respect of an article in a newspaper published by the respondent newspaper group.



M had obtained a post-graduate doctoral degree in hypnotherapy from an institution in the US state of Louisiana, known at material times as the La Salle University. At the time M did so the president of La Salle pleaded guilty to charges of fraudulently misleading students into believing that the institution was accredited for the granting of degrees when it was not so accredited. The article complained of referred to M's degree as 'bogus', and alleged that La Salle degrees could be obtained merely in exchange for the payment of money. The meaning of the words in the article was that M had fraudulently boasted in his publicity material that he had a degree at doctoral level while knowing full well that it was bogus, since he had obtained his degree from the La Salle by post and simply in return for money. M submitted that any perceived lack of academic rigour at La Salle could not, without more evidence, be probative of dishonesty on his part.



Held, on the evidence, M had been granted a degree by La Salle for what it was worth. Opinions on that worth clearly differed, but M valued the degree and had not been seeking to deceive anyone by making reference to it himself or permitting others to do so. Accordingly, the respondent had not discharged the burden of proving that the sting of the words complained of was substantially true. M was not dishonest, and whatever one might think of the academic quality of M's work, it was not accurate to describe the degree as bogus. It had certainly not been granted merely for, or in effect for, money.



Judgment for claimant.



Desmond Browne QC, Manuel Barca (instructed by Swan Turton) for the claimant; John Kelsey-Fry QC, Catrin Evans (instructed by Davenport Lyons) for the defendant.