Are reporters who risk their lives in Russia, many of whom are killed, the modern-day equivalents of Soviet-era dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov? This question was central to a debate on press freedom, organised by Index on Censorship to mark publication of a report on the issue by Committee to Protect Journalists.
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Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is reported to have had brain surgery after being beaten by police.
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The UK’s Ministry of Justice has launched a consultation on defamation on the Internet, with particular focus on the “multiple publication rule”.
What’s multiple publication? Simple, really. Every time someone visits a story on a web site, or a blog post, that counts as publication. If they then refresh the page, that’s two publications, and so on.
With print publications, there is a statute of limitations of one year for libel proceedings. That is to say, if someone published a libellous comment in a newspaper, the person who feels he has been defamed has to respond by issuing legal proceedings. After a year, they can no longer sue. There is a logic to this: if someone genuinely felt they had been damaged, or put at risk of damage, by a news story or comment, it is unlikely they would wait a year before commencing proceedings against a writer, newspaper, magazine or publisher.
With online publication, however, as every time a page is refreshed counts as publiaction, there is no initial point of publication recognised in law. Hence, someone could sue a blogger for something they had written five years ago, but had not been noticed until last week.
This is the issue the consultation seeks to address. You can read the initial consultation paper here
Human Rights Watch’s suspension of military analyst Marc Garlasco under Israeli pressure raises questions about its own commitment to free expression, says Richard Silverstein of Tikun Olam
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