Our libel laws inhibit the truth - we need new ones

Some of you may have read the latest edition of Progress magazine which carries a striking image of a gagged woman standing outside Parliament to illustrate a brilliant piece written by Jonathan Heawood, Director of English PEN, on why we need to reform England’s awful libel laws in the interests of social justice.

I have to say that I’ve only recently woken up to the fraught and decades-long debate about our libel laws after Progress was served by Carter-Ruck and had to face the ignominy of crumbling in front of a legal giant with a powerful client, or trying to find the thousands of pounds it would have required to hire lawyers and fight the action. Shame and spinelessness it was. There was no way a tiny publishing outfit like Progress, even with the impact we have, could have stumped up the money to fight Carter-Ruck. And so it is with many organisations from football fanzines to small independent publishers. Even bigger outfits like the New Statesman pull investigative journalism because they can’t bear the extortionate cost of fighting a legal action.

At the launch this morning of a petition by The Libel Reform Campaign which is supported by English PEN, Index on Censorship, Sense About Science and other organisations, John Kampfner, former Editor of the Statesman quoted a Fleet Street editor who had said “lay off the oligarchs – we can’t afford it”.  Ben Goldacre of Bad Science fame explained that even when you win a libel case, it ends up costing you. Goldacre’s case against Mattias Rath, a chap who seems to think his vitamin pills can cure HIV better than AIDS drugs, ended up costing the Guardian £170,000 even after their costs were paid. But it isn’t just the cost which worries most campaign supporters, it’s the fact that it means certain discussions – around pharmaceutical companies for example – take place in a culture of fear. Instead of thinking, and writing, freely, authors start by worrying about framing what they say so they don’t get stamped on with that Orwellian boot. As Goldacre put it “It’s the censorship that happens in our own heads which is the danger”.

A number of luminaries have signed up to the campaign including A C Grayling, Nick Cohen, Ben Goldacre, Monica Ali, Ian Hislop and Stephen Fry.  One of the other panel speakers this morning, John Micklethwait from the Economist, set out the changes we need:

• Reversing the burden of proof in libel cases so that the plaintiff has to prove the defamation
• Extending legal aid to cover libelPossibly putting a limit on costs
• Resort to the courts only permitted when external redress has been sought and exhausted
• Introducing a public interest defence.

There will inevitably be discussion about whether we need all these changes and how they will look exactly in law, but Denis MacShane MP who has campaigned for changes to libel ever since he was President of the NUJ said that the next step must be to get the changes into Parliament, and quick. He criticised Jack Straw for suggesting in the New Statesman that he was going to be radical on this, but instead of pushing for legislation made the brave decision to set up a committee. Apparently Lord Leicester has said he would be willing to introduce a libel reform bill in the Lords, and there is always the chance that we will be able to persuade political parties to include reform in their manifestos. Meanwhile, Progress is urging its supporters to sign up to the campaign and to write to your MP to support EDM 423.

As the scope for citizen journalism grows with the expansion of the internet and print journalism wanes, the power of wealthy individuals backed by ruthless lawyers will become ever greater. This threatens our right to genuine freedom of speech – a right which we have got used to taking for granted. Reform of libel law is something all political parties can unite upon in a spirit of Christmas peace, let’s try and make them act on it.

Comments

[Margaret Watson]

To English Pen and to Denis Macshan MP. Just a short not to state that I have been seeking to amend the UK defamtaion legislation to include families of homicide victims since 1992, but it seems defamation of the deceased is of no interest to the aforementioned politicians. I wrote to Lord Lester of the English Pen in September of this year on this very subject, only for my letter to be ignored by him – Why, because he has no interest in the harrowing effect defamation of homicide victims has on families of innocent homicide victims in Criminal Memoirs. They are dead and as far as he is concerned their families may as well be dead too.

Letter to Lord Lester through English Pen website.
Margaret Watson
80 Meadowpark Street
Dennistoun
Glasgow
G31 2SJ.

17 September 2009

[email protected]

Dear Lord Lester

You may recall you wrote to me on the 21 July, outlining your objections to stopping convicted murderers profiting from selling their vile accounts of their crimes for personal profit.

Families of homicide victims would be most interested in knowing your views on defamation of homicide victims in criminal memoirs and at the hands of campaigning journalist, who abuse their position of great power to mislead their readers as to the true events leading up to their violent actions with the clear aim of getting more human rights for convicted murderers.

Do you hold the view that families of homicide victims should not be allowed any legal standing under UK defamation legislation to formally challenge false information published as fact by or on behalf of convicted murderers in their criminal memoirs? Please explain your views on this question.

Do you hold a view on amending the UK defamation legislation to include families of homicide victims? Please explain your views on this question.

Do you hold the view that families of homicide victims should never be allowed the same human rights as convicted murderers under the existing UK defamation legislation? Evidence attached.

Would you champion families of homicide victims basic human right under section 2 of Article 10 of the Convention of Human Rights who are being forced to suffering the indignity of seeing their murdered love one's good name and reputation unjustly defiled at the hands of a convicted murderer (criminal memoirs) or at the hands of campaigning journalist, who campaign for yet more human rights for those convicted of murderers and who know they can under the existing UK defamation legislation, defile the good name and reputation of innocent homicide victims with impunity ? Please explain your answer to this question.

Do you hold the view that it is alright for irresponsible campaigning journalist for convicted murderers to grossly mislead their readers as to the true events of a particular case, if by lying to their readers such journalist get even more human rights for those convicted of murder? In other wards the end justifies the means.

I would be most grateful if you give a prompt reply to my questions as families of innocent homicide victims are most anxious to learn your views on defamation of homicide victims under UK defamation legislation.

Yours sincerely
Margaret Watson.

[Little Richardjohn]

Just to say the link for potential signatories is broken.
CF at work again?

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But, As I returned from a Southern Hemisphere holiday, where temperatures were nearly 40 degrees C, I was shocked by the unusually cold weather in the UK. The winters in the UK are usually much milder than this as we all know, so what is going on with the weather? If you don’t know already, read on to find out and to read 10 top tips on driving safely during the snow period.

In most winters, especially in the past 20 years or so, winds reaching the UK normally came from the south-west. This meant the air had travelled over the relatively warm Atlantic and we got mild conditions in the UK. However, over the past three weeks the Atlantic air has been ‘blocked’ and cold air has been flowing down from the Arctic or the cold winter landmass of Europe (Met Office) of course right.

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