Parliament of the United Kingdom

“ A court does not have jurisdiction to hear and determine an action for defamation brought against a person who was not the author, editor or publisher of the statement complained of unless the court is satisfied that it is not reasonably practicable for an action to be brought against the author, editor or publisher.
(2) In this section “author”, “editor” and “publisher” have the same meaning as in section 1 of the Defamation Act 1996. ”

“ The publication of a statement that conveys the imputation that a person has a contagious or infectious disease does not give rise to a cause of action for slander unless the publication causes the person special damage.
General provisions
15 Meaning of “publish” and “statement”
In this Act—
“publish” and “publication”, in relation to a statement, have the meaning they have for the purposes of the law of defamation generally; “statement” means words, pictures, visual images, gestures or any other method of signifying meaning. ”

“ The third condition is that an honest person could have held the opinion on the basis of—
(a) any fact which existed at the time the statement complained of was published; (b) anything asserted to be a fact in a privileged statement published before the statement complained of. (5) The defence is defeated if the claimant shows that the defendant did not hold the opinion. ”