A regional press publisher has obtained a potentially significant court ruling on the issue of how far they are protected from legal action over user-generated web content.

Newsquest says the High Court judgement clarifies for the first time that newspaper websites hosting user-generated content are, subject to certain conditions, protected from liability.

The ruling suggests that publishers cannot be held responsible for potentially libellous material posted by website users so long as it is removed as soon as possible.

Although this has been a general assumption made by publishers, Newsquest law experts say the precise legal position has remained “frustratingly unclear” until now.

The ruling arose from a case brought against Newsquest by a solicitor, Imran Karim, who was struck off the Law Society roll last year after being found guilty of dishonesty.

He appealed against the Society’s decision to an employment tribunal, but this was rejected.

Mr Karim had sued Newsquest for defamation over a story recording the tribunal’s decision which was carried on certain Newsquest websites under the headline ‘Crooked solicitor spent client money on a Rolex, loose women and drink.’

His case was thrown out after the court found that the story was published contemporaneously, was a substantially fair and accurate account of the tribunal proceedings and therefore qualified for absolute privilege in law.

The web story had also attracted a range of comments from readers using Newsquest’s readers’ comments facility to post their views online, some, though not all of them, critical of Mr Karim.

As soon as Newsquest received the legal claim from Mr Karim, the readers’ comments were removed from the websites concerned.

Mr Justice Eady concluded that Newsquest websites were acting as hosts of the reader comments for the purposes of Regulation 19 of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 and therefore would not be liable for any damages even if the material was unlawful.

He said Newsquest had fulfilled the conditions for protection under Regulation 19, namely that the comments had been posted directly to the sites by third party contributors without intervention by Newsquest, and that they had acted expeditiously to remove access to the material.

Newsquest’s head of legal, Simon Westrop, said: “We are grateful for a very clear judgment from the court which, in our view, is supportive of free expression on the internet.

“It should help website operators in similar circumstances to understand their responsibilities as regards the hosting of user-generated content, with the assurance that the law offers protection if they act correctly.”