Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand v Crush - [1988] 2 NZLR 234

Defamation — Pleading, practice and evidence — Justification and fair comment — Plaintiff pleaded false innuendos arising from radio broadcasts and newspaper articles — Defendants pleaded lesser defamatory meanings than those alleged by plaintiff and sought to justify those lesser meanings; defendants did not seek to justify the meanings alleged by plaintiff — Defendants also pleaded fair comment — Whether defendants were entitled to plead justification on the basis of different meanings to those pleaded by plaintiff — Whether defendants were entitled to plead fair comment when passages complained of contained an implication rather than a comment — Whether defendants' pleadings should be struck out — Defamation Act 1954, ss 7 and 22.