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Section 8D: Offences in connection with reporting

Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 · 1980 c. 43View on legislation.gov.uk

Part I: Criminal Jurisdiction and Procedure

If a report is published in contravention of section 8C each of the following persons is guilty of an offence—

in the case of a publication of a report as part of a newspaper or periodical, any proprietor, editor or publisher of the newspaper or periodical;
in the case of the inclusion of a report in a relevant programme, any body corporate which is engaged in providing the service in which the programme is included and any person having functions in relation to the programme corresponding to those of an editor of a newspaper;
in the case of any other publication, any person publishing it.

If an offence under this section committed by a body corporate is proved—

to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or
to be attributable to any neglect on the part of,

an officer, the officer as well as the body corporate is guilty of the offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

In subsection (2), "officer" means a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body, or a person purporting to act in any such capacity.

If the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, "director"in subsection (3) means a member of that body.

A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine of an amount not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

Proceedings for an offence under this section may not be instituted otherwise than by or with the consent of the Attorney General.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.