{"id":93408,"date":"2011-11-11T10:30:40","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T10:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.indexoncensorship.org\/?p=6676"},"modified":"2022-12-16T14:56:27","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T14:56:27","slug":"author-sues-reviewer-over-comments-on-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/?p=93408","title":{"rendered":"Author sues reviewer over comments on Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A father of three from Nuneaton, <a title=\"Index on Censorship : UK\" href=\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/tag\/UK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U<\/a><a title=\"Index on Censorship : UK\" href=\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/tag\/uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">K<\/a>, appeared in the High Court yesterday to <a title=\"Independent : Man faces libel allegations over Amazon book review\" href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/crime\/man-faces-libel-allegations-over-amazon-book-review-6259431.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">face libel allegations<\/a> over a book review he wrote on Amazon.<\/p>\n<p>Vaughan Jones, 28, appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday for a hearing to <a title=\"Telegraph : Author sues reviewer over comments on Amazon\" href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/technology\/amazon\/8880832\/Author-sues-reviewer-over-comments-on-Amazon.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">defend himsel<\/a>f against the libel suit from online entrepreneur Chris McGrath.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Amazon : The Attempted Murder of God: Hidden Science You Really Need to Know\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Attempted-Murder-God-Hidden-Science\/dp\/0956471404\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">McGrath, author of<\/a> \u201cThe Attempted Murder of God: Hidden Science You Really Need to Know,\u201d undertook libel action against Jones, after he published a review of the book on Amazon, and comments regarding the book and Mr McGrath himself on Richard Dawkins\u2019s website during September and October 2010. Jones also outed McGrath as the author of the book, which had been written under the pseudonym &#8220;Scrooby&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>McGrath is not only suing Jones for his allegedly defamatory comments, but Amazon, Richard Dawkins himself, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Presided over by His Honour Judge Maloney QC, Jones was joined by legal representation for Amazon and the Richard Dawkins Foundation to ascertain if there is a case to answer.<\/p>\n<p>Entrepreneur turned author McGrath believes that Amazon and the Richard Dawkins Foundation did not respond appropriately to the alleged defamatory statements on the respective websites, and thus they are also liable for a defamation suit.<\/p>\n<p>John Kampfner, the Chief Executive of Index on Censorship, said: \u201cThat a family man from Nuneaton can face a potentially ruinous libel action for a book review on Amazon shows how archaic and expensive our libel law is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kampfner added that the <a title=\"Libel Reform Campaign\" href=\"http:\/\/libelreform.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Libel Reform Campaign<\/a>, which is underway with English Pen and Sense about Science, is hoping to commit to a bill in the next Queen\u2019s speech to reform the chilling effect libel has on freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing continues today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Alice Purkiss<\/strong>: Author sues reviewer over comments on Amazon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[14271,2251,42850,1500,267,4467],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120182,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93408\/revisions\/120182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}