Badfellagate – a wise decision

Newspaper critics of all persuasions will be sleeping better in their beds following the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland overturning the verdict in what I think of as ‘Badfellagate’, a case in Northern Ireland in which a restaurant proprietor sued a critic over an adverse review.

Anthony Lester QC, an architect of the UK Human Rights Act, fighting the appeal on behalf of the Irish News, said it would be “perfectly ludicrous” if libel proceedings could be issued every time a critic wrote a bad review and with this I wholeheartedly concur.

Relations between restaurateurs and restaurant critics are usually convivial or at least, neutral. Most reviewers would rather give a positive review than a negative one. I don’t believe anyone ever bought a newspaper or a magazine to find out where to get a bad meal. So the vast majority of reviews are favourable and it is quite common to see such reviews, laminated or framed, hung proudly on restaurant walls and in their windows.

It’s when a bad review is given that the normal equable relationship between restaurateur and critic gets strained. At such times the restaurateur loves to level the charge “You are putting peoples’ livelihoods at stake.” This is a much more common complaint than “You are talking through your arse.” The restaurateur’s desire at such times is to see the critic branded not as a fool but as a deep-dyed villain.

Restaurateurs really believe critics have the potential to damage a restaurant’s reputation and business. A critic’s words, they argue, can make a restaurant popular and successful, but at the same time such words can destroy a restaurant’s reputation and persuade customers to eat elsewhere.

Newspaper and magazine readers are highly susceptible to the critic’s comments and, because the credibility of the medium is high, restaurant reviews are extremely influential. Is this really true? Well, it would be flattering if it were. But three out of the four restaurants I’ve given a seriously damning review to over the years are still in business so maybe we are not quite as influential as people imagine us to be.

Anyhow, thank goodness it’s ‘business, as usual.’ In my opinion (always a useful phrase to include in a restaurant review) an endorsement of the original judgement in the Goodfellas franchisee v Irish News/Caroline Workman case would have made it it extremely difficult for reviewers of restaurants to engage in any meaningful criticism at all. Not to mention theatre, cinema, TV, music and other reviewers.