Is The UK Finally Going To Fix Its Awful Libel Laws?

For many years, there's been talk about how the UK really needed to fix its libel laws, which place much of the burden on the accused. This allows people and companies to often shut down fair and open debate on a subject, just by charging someone with libel. On top of that, it created a serious problem with "libel tourism," where people would be sued in the UK, even if the content originated elsewhere, to have the case heard under the stringent UK laws. For the last year or so there's been lots of talk about how the UK was really, really, really (no, really!) going to fix its libel laws, and it sounds like it might finally happen. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg recently announced rather specific plans to reform the current UK libel law -- which he referred to as an "international laughing stock."

While the details will certainly matter, he did lay out some specifics of what was planned, including a statutory defense for "speaking out in the public interest," as well as clarifying "fair comment and justification" defenses. Two other specifics: (1) large companies will have to show substantial damage before they can sue individuals or non-government organizations and (2) newspapers will get special privileges when covering foreign parliaments.

These all sound like steps in the right direction, though I am worried about those last two points, in that they seem to be setting up different rules for different organizations and people. Do they really mean "newspapers" or does that include purely web-based publications as well? Why will only large companies have to show that they've suffered damages? The worry is the more specific special rules you set up for special classes, the more the law becomes about carving out things around a law, rather than creating a general law that makes sense across the board.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Lauren Bush Natalie Zea Brody Dalle Taryn Manning Nikki Cox