{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/newspaper-libel-and-registration-act-1881/section-4",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/newspaper-libel-and-registration-act-1881/section-4.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/Vict/44-45/60",
  "legislation_title": "Newspaper Libel and Registration Act 1881",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/newspaper-libel-and-registration-act-1881",
  "path": "section/4",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "4",
  "heading": "Inquiry by court of summary jurisdiction as to libel being for public benefit or being true.",
  "text": "A court of summary jurisdictionin Northern Ireland, upon the hearing of a charge against a proprietor, publisher, or editor, or any person responsible for the publication of a newspaper, for ablasphemous libel published therein, may receive evidence ... as to any matter which under this or any other Act, or otherwise, might be given in evidence by way of defence by the person charged on his trial on indictment, and the court, if of opinion after hearing such evidence that there is a strong or probable presumption that the jury on the trial would acquit the person charged, may dismiss the case.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words in s. 4 inserted (12.1.2010) by Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (c. 25), s. 182(2)(c), Sch. 21 para. 67(a) (with s. 180)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Word in s. 4 inserted (12.1.2010) by Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (c. 25), s. 182(2)(c), Sch. 21 para. 67(b) (with s. 180)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words in s. 4 repealed (12.1.2010) by Coroners and Justice Act 2009 (c. 25), s. 182(2)(c), (e)(i), (e)(iii), (e)(ix), (e)(v), (e)(vi), (e)(vii), (e)(viii), (e)(x), (e)(xi), (5), Sch. 21 para. 67(c)Sch. 23 Pt. 2 (with s. 180)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/44-45/60/section/4",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T12:42:21.902326+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}