... becomes defamatory if it lowers the claimant in the eyes of right thinking members of society. In Berkoff v Burchill3, the claimant, an actor, sued a journalist, for describing him as 'hideously ugly'. The journalist claimed that her words were not defamatory since they did not injure his reputation. However, the court of appeal held that as the claimant earned a living as an actor the words were likely to lower his reputation in the eyes of the public and therefore the journalist's statement was defamatory. In assessing whether a statement is defamatory a court will look at whole context in which it was made. In Norman v Future Publishing4, it was stated that whether a statement is capable of carrying a defamatory meaning is a matter of law, but whether it actually is defamatory in the circumstances of the case is a matter of fact, to be decided by the ...

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