Defamation laws must be updated
This letter was published in The Times today
Sir, On Monday Parliament will have a unique opportunity to repeal the arcane and antiquated offences of seditious libel and criminal defamation. These two crimes date from an era when governments preferred to lock up their critics than to engage them in debate, and are incompatible with the universal right to freedom of expression. Their repeal is long overdue, and will send a powerful signal to states around the world which routinely use charges of sedition and criminal defamation to imprison their critics and silence dissent.
In The Gambia, Abdul Hamid Adiamoh, editor of the independent Today newspaper, is standing trial for ‘publishing with seditious intention’ a report on poverty in that country. In Turkey, defamation laws were used in an attempt to silence the writer and Nobel prizewinner Orhan Pamuk, while similar lese-majesty laws in Thailand have been used to suppress criticism of the government as well as of the king. There has been no attempt to use criminal defamation in the UK since 1982, a measure of the redundancy of the offence.
We commend the continued efforts of Evan Harris, MP, to haul this country’s laws into the 21st century, and urge MPs of all parties to back his amendments to the Coroners and Justice Bill. The repeal of seditious libel and criminal defamation will protect the rights not only of British citizens, but of people the world over, and opens the way to wider reforms of England’s much abused libel laws.
Jonathan Dimbleby
Chairman, Index on Censorship
Shami Chakrabarti
Director, Liberty
Lisa Appignanesi
President, English PEN
Agnes Callamard
Director, Article 19
Jo Glanville
Editor, Index on Censorship
Jonathan Heawood
Director, English PEN
John Kampfner
Chief Executive, Index on Censorship
Roger Smith
Director, Justice
Jeremy Dear
General Secretary, NUJ