You made the right decision. One thing that most news journalists will have is media law training, or at least an editor or lawyer above them who can look at their work. I'm a journalist, and I think I disagree with the above post. I'd say you were a diarist, although your diary is public. You made the right decision, though - in Brit law it's up to the defendent to prove that what they wrote was right, rather than the claimant to prove its falseness, which is very hard. Esp as you say, it was hearsay. Very interesting post, though.