[A2k] UK Libel Law Is a Global Threat To Web Free Speech

[Jeffrey A. Williams]

All,

  I have to wonder how access to knowledge is fully recognized
if the UK justice system has decided to lean in this direction.  Seems
to me that investigative reporters in the UK will all soon be unemployed
and seeking employment elsewhere much to the UK publics disadvantage.
I am also greatly ashamed at PM Brown for not speaking out strongly
against this sort of behavior on the cusp of the G 20 meeting.  He
should be soundly scolded!

God save the queen!

See: http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/03/29/1411207

London media lawyer Emily MacManus argues that UK libel
law has three features which
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/will-net-free-speech-survive-british-libel-litigation
make it the 'defamation tourism' capital of the world and a serious
threat to Web free speech. First, there is no free speech presumption
in the UK as there is, for example, in the US. Second, every access of
a Web page is considered to be a separate act of publication in the UK
(unlike the US, where 'original publication' holds). Third,
'no-win-no-fee' libel litigation is now allowed in the UK.  If any blog,
anywhere, publishes something you'd like taken down, threaten libel
action in the UK: no one except the super-rich can afford to even take
these cases to court, so media lawyers advise publishers to 'take it
down, take it down quickly, take it down again.'  There's not much
chance that the judges will move the law any time soon because they
just aren't seeing the cases that could cause them to set new
precedent."

Regards,

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