Newspapers have a right to publish certain information about you even if the information turns out to be untrue. For example, if you have been charged with a criminal offence and then prosecuted, news reporters have a right to report from legal proceedings as long as the reporting is fair and accurate. The problem starts in cases when a reporter sits in court and then writes an article about the serious allegations that a witness has made against the defendant.

The newspaper then publishes a report from the legal proceedings about the evidence that was given against the defendant. Say the following day, the reporter does not turn up to court when the evidence of the same witness is discredited. A few days later, the defendant is found not guilty, or the trial collapses due to the now discredited evidence of the witness against him.Because the journalist is not in court, this isn’t being reported by the newspaper. The consequence for the defendant, who has now been found not guilty is that the allegations against him, as given by the false witness and reported by the press, is still published on the internet, on the online version of the newspaper.

Even though the reported allegations have been proven false, the newspaper editor refuses to delete the online news article. This leaves the innocent victim of the false allegations in a difficult situation. To the rest of his life he will be subjected to publication of false allegations against him without being able to take legal action for defamation against the newspaper or against the witness who gave false evidence.

The newspaper is protected by the fair reporting from legal proceedings defence whilst the discredited witness is protected by the fact that their false statement was made during legal proceedings. By law, both of them have a good defence to a claim of defamation. The only option left for the victim of the false allegations is to ask Google to de-list the news articles from its internet searches.

Google, however, often thinks that it is above the law. When the allegations are serious, particularly involving sex offending, Google tends to treat applicants of a right to be forgotten request with contempt. Google, without good reason refuses to delist certain news articles about criminal proceedings from search results. This is where the victim needs to come and speak to us!