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High Court allows application for production of a confidential report in defamation proceedings, on the grounds that: (a) in making voluntary discovery of the report, on the basis of producing only a highly redacted version, the plaintiff had implicitly accepted its relevance, and that is was necessary for the defendant's case; (b) the content of the report as reviewed by the court was relevant and necessary to the issues to be tried at the hearing of the action; (c) the application was not an attempt to establish a bare plea of justification; and (d) balancing the confidentiality of the report and the reasons in EU law for such confidentiality as against the importance of the document to the defendant's case favoured ordering production of the report.
Application by defendant seeking production of investigation report by plaintiff - underlying defamation proceedings - defendant employed as a pilot by the plaintiff - website postings made by defendant concerning an incident involving a flight operated by the plaintiff alleged to be defamatory - report the subject of the application was internal investigation into the incident - EU Regulations providing for confidentiality in investigations in the interests of safety - agreement between the parties that report was confidential and would require some redaction if produced - whether production of the report was necessary for defending the case - whether plaintiff was estopped from denying relevance and necessity of the document where it had consented to producing a highly redacted version - whether defendant was engaged in fishing expedition to justify bare plea - whether balancing exercise favoured ordering production of the report.
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