Privileged Defamation

The whole of tort law may be envisaged as a process of a protection for one man\u27s interest at the expense of another\u27s according to a norm of social policy. In the law of defamation, as elsewhere, we find a continuous comparison of the social value of the interests involved and the probable effect thereon of license or restraint upon statement and discussion. Immunity is granted or withheld on the principle of the residuum of social convenience deriving from the protection of one interest at the expense of another