The US Congress has approved a bill aimed at protecting US writers from libel tourists using English courts to pursue defamation claims. The SPEECH (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage) Act now goes to President Obama to be signed into law.
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The first libel case in the new Supreme Court, Joseph v Spiller was heard on 26-27 July.
The case concerns Motown tribute act, the Gillettes, who sued after their former agent Jason Spiller posted on his website that the band were not professional and that they consider contractual terms and conditions to “hold no water in legal terms”.
William Bennett, representing Craig Joseph, a singer for the group who arranged their bookings, has argued that a “fair comment” defence should be rejected because the “comment” related to a false fact and no reference was made in the post to the truthful facts upon which the comment was based. In contrast lawyers for the agent, Spiller, contended that the false fact was not materially detrimental to Joseph and thus the defence should not fail. He further appealed to the justices to clarify and simplify the meaning of the “fair comment” defence, including renaming it “comment” to avoid misleading juries, since the defence protects both fair and unfair comments equally. A ruling, which could have serious effect on future definitions of fair comment, is expected in August or early September.
The whistleblowers’ website goes mainstream — reconfiguring ideas of journalism, transparency, openness and security in the internet age. Jillian C York reports
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Emadden Baghi, an Iranian human rights activist and journalist, has been given a year-long prison sentence and banned from any political activity for five years. He was arrested during anti-government protests in 2009. He faces a second trial relating to accusations surrounding an interview he conducted with cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri for BBC Persia. Baghi is a previous winner of the French Republic’s Human Rights Prize and the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.