true or was not safe to publish as it could not be confirmed. In Khumalo and Others vs Holomisa 2002 (5) SA 401 (CC) the following which underscores the importance of ascertaining the facts and truthfulness of a matter before publication, was stated at paragraph 39:‘The difficulty of providing the truth or otherwise of defamatory statements and Common Law rule which lets the risk of the failure to establish truth, lies on defendants, in the absence of a defence of reasonable publication, thus causing a “chilling effect” in the publication of information. A publisher will think twice before publishing a defamatory statement where it may be difficult or impossible to prove the truth of that statement and where no other defence to defamation would be available .’ The court went on to cite a quote from (sic) English case of Derbyshire Country Council v Times Newspapers, 1993 1 ALL E. R. 1011 (HL) at page 1018:‘What has been described as the “chilling effect” induced by the threat of civil actions for libel is very important. Quite often the facts that would justify a defamatory publication are known to be true, but admissible evidence capable of proving those facts is not available. This may prevent the publication of matters which it is very desirable to make public.’ [45] I was clearly not prepared to order the DNA test as urged by Mr. Mahlangu. Firstly I was not dealing with a paternity matter where Mr. Mahlangu had instituted these proceedings seeking an order that the Plaintiff be compelled to submit to a DNA test or exercise for him to prove he was her father or the other way round. Instead the proceedings are brought to Court because Mr. Mahlangu is alleged (which be confirms) to have boldly said that the Plaintiff is his daughter and not that she could be his daughter which would be a different case altogether. Clearly if the Plaintiff (sic) had the audacity to publicly and boldly claim in 2009 that someone, who in terms of her birth certificate was born in 1952, was his daughter, he surely should as at that stage have had all the evidence proving that. This became all the more so when the said Mr. Mahlangu could himself not even attest that he had at some stage in their long lives confronted the said Gelane about his being her father at some point since her birth. The publication of the allegations, taken together with the language used and the sensationalization that attached thereto, was clearly calculated to 25