Harry Potter should have sued for libel

I was reading my Writing for Mass Communication book in the chapter about Media Ethics and realized that Harry Potter had every right to sue the The Daily Prophet.



Laws punishing libel and slander are implemented in several Commonwealth nations not only in the United States. In Great Britain it is known as the English Defamation Law. Modern law states that "A is liable for saying anything to C about B which would be apt to make the average citizen think worse of the latter."
So just plug in The Daily Prophet for A, the wizarding public for C, and Harry Potter for B and you've got yourself a lawsuit.

However, Harry Potter must have proof of the written defamation. Well that's not too hard, The Daily Prophet only called him an attention seeking lunatic every other day.


Next, Potter needs to prove actual malice or negligence on the part of The Daily Prophet. Well the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, kept The Daily Prophet under his thumb not allowing Potter to defend himself or really give his side of the story. Also, one of the leading reporters for The Daily Prophet, Reeta Skeeter, was an unregistered Animagus. The Daily Prophett is responsible for her reckless negligence.

Now, assuming that Potter's argument hold up in Wizengamot, The Daily Prophet would be required to pay damages. They would have to issue a formal retraction and apology, and due to the repeated occurrences of defamation they would likely be required to pay in wizard gold as a part of compensation. Of course, Potter was left with enough money to buy out NASA when his parents died (AVPM) so the money would not be as important to him as the clearing of his name and alerting the wizarding world of the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. However, it would benefit The Ministry to give some sort of donation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or give a reward to Potter to show good standing. The Ministry is also tangled in this lawsuit because of Fudge's intimidation of The Daily Prophet, not to mention the time when Delores Umbridge, a Ministry worker, inflicted physical harm to Potter for telling his story.

She could probably go to Azkaban for that!!! It would serve the toad right!

If my test asks to give an example of a libel lawsuit I'm using this situation. Do you think I could get bonus points for awesome?