Users of an online carers forum are devastated after their site was closed following threats of legal action. Emily Butselaar reports on a worrying instance of internet censorship (more…)
Libel Reform Campaign has today published a new guide about libel laws for bloggers.
The guide, entitled ‘So you’ve had a threatening letter. What can you do?’ is published by Index on Censorship in association with Sense About Science, English PEN, the Media Legal Defence Initiative, the Association of British Science Writers and the World Federation of Science Journalists.
The report seeks to better explain English libel law for people who have been threatened with legal action for blogs, comments or articles they have posted online.
It addresses the essential questions, namely the strength of the claimant’s threat and how the defendant should respond. Today’s publication comprises just a part of the Libel Reform Campaign’s wider efforts to make English libel law simpler, cheaper, and less favourable to the claimant. If the campaign is successful, it is hoped changes will come into force that will better defend online publishers and writers against defamation actions.
For information about the launch and how to get tickets, see our events page here.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCDvRJKQjSI
It was good to see Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, championing free speech on the first day of the Conservative party conference yesterday in Birmingham.
First, he spoke alongside Kenneth Clarke, secretary of state for justice, at a Liberty fringe event and when asked how he’d deal with rabble-rousing jihadists, he answered that he wasn’t a fan of hate speech laws. He’d much rather see hatemongers publicly dismissed or challenged rather than pursued through the courts.
He added that he felt that free speech had been eroded and it looks very likely that some of the Labour government’s misguided terrorism legislation (including glorification) will be repealed. The attorney general made another appearance later on in the day at the libel reform campaign fringe event with Index on Censorship, Sense about Science and English PEN in the Castle Fine Art gallery, flanked on each side by Bob Dylan’s perplexing pseudo Van Gogh paintings. Although he managed to upset Simon Singh by referring to the blogosphere as “froth”, his support for the campaign, along with that of John Whittingdale MP, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, went down well with campaigners last night.