The first libel case to be appealed to the Supreme Court has seen a defence dating back to Victorian times broadened to meet the needs of the internet age.

In Spiller v Joseph, Lord Phillips said the defence of ‘fair comment’, which places a burden on defendants to provide a full factual basis for the opinions they have expressed, should be renamed ‘honest comment’, to give greater protection to ‘honest opinion’.

Phillips said the new defence would no longer require defendants to give all the facts on which the comment was based. However, he added that ‘the comment must explicitly or implicitly indicate, at least in general terms, the fact on which it is based’.

Lord Walker noted that the ‘fair comment’ defence originated in the Victorian era, when just ‘a relatively small, educated and socially elevated class’ was able to read and write.

He said blogging and online media have made it easy for all types of people to criticise others, and the defence should be broadened to embrace this change.