07 Jan 11 | News and features
Index on Censorship celebrates Nick Clegg’s commitment to overhaul England’s much-criticised libel laws
The Libel Reform Campaign today welcomes Nick Clegg’s pledge to reform defamation laws that have made England an international “laughing stock”.
In a speech this morning at the Institute of Government in London, the deputy prime minister will reveal that the government will address all the issues raised by the Libel Reform Campaign in its report, Free Speech Is Not For Sale. A draft defamation bill to be published in the spring will clarify the existing defences of fair comment and justification. It will protect scientists, academics and journalists speaking out in the public interest with a new statutory defence.
Index on Censorship Chief Executive John Kampfner commented:
This is welcome news for the libel reform campaign. The deputy prime minister has not only acknowledged the chilling effect of our defamation laws, but taken our demands for reform fully on board. We’re delighted that that in tone and detail the draft bill will go a long way to tackling the chill on free speech emanating from English courts.
Jonathan Heawood, director of English PEN said:
We warmly welcome the deputy prime minister’s pledge to reform our rusting libel laws. PEN members have been calling for reform for over sixty years, so we are delighted that the government is making this manifesto commitment a priority. If the government follows through on Mr Clegg’s encouraging promises, the law will achieve a much more sensible balance between free expression and reputation. MPs must now ensure that the draft Bill lives up to these commitments, and that the measures are not watered down to please the rich libel tourists who currently abuse our system.
Tracey Brown of Sense About Science said:
The current libel laws are squashing free debate and expression about science, medicine, local government, corruption, biography, and consumer safety. It is squashing many more people now that we have internet publishing and individual blogs taking on these subjects. We think the government understands that now, but we know that there are many who would like to keep this system for silencing or bankrupting critics, so the deputy prime minister’s commitment to change is very important.
30 Nov 10 | Uncategorized
When somebody used the word “class” I cringed and thought to myself: “I wish they wouldn’t do that.”
The speaker was one of the students occupying a hall at University College London, and we were talking about why they were doing it. My reaction, I can see on reflection, was entirely misguided — a symptom of a problem the students are complaining about.
Why shouldn’t they talk about class? It may not play well with the mainstream press, who will mock the idea of students identifying with working people, but what does the mainstream press know? What century are they in? Far, far more of today’s students actually have something in common with working people than when Paul Dacre (Daily Mail) or Tony Gallagher (Daily Telegraph) or Alan Rusbridger (Guardian) were undergraduates.
When a student from a working-class background penetrates third level education it is no longer the exciting, laudable, affirming exception. It hasn’t been for years and years and years. But you wouldn’t know that from the national papers, which for the most part continue to exist in a ludicrous Brideshead timewarp.
Which makes you wonder about the question the students are asking; how can they get their message across in the mainstream press? How can they persuade reporters to take them seriously, and to drop all that drivel about spoiled brats and window breakers?
Then there is the problem of protest. In the modern mode, there is no such thing as legitimate protest, unless it is so dainty and polite that it qualifies more as an exercise in collective etiquette than an expression of anger. Go ahead and protest, we say, but don’t get in anybody’s way for as much as a minute, and on no account give offence.
These students are angry, and I’m happy to say, on the basis of a couple of hours’ observation, they are well aware that being polite is not an end in itself. They are serious and thoughtful and there are things they want, and they appear to know that conforming to the mainstream rulebook will get them nowhere.
They have tried that. A whole lot of them politely voted Liberal Democrat last May, very often on the strength of that notorious pledge about tuition fees. Are they now supposed to wait five years for the opportunity to put that right by not voting Lib Dem?
No. Because it won’t put it right. It would mean the Liberal Democrats had five years in power based on a lie, and were free to use it to mock and damage the people who voted for them. Remember, no party fought the last election on a programme of cuts, not even the Conservatives.
I know British people are supposed to be polite, but it is taking good manners a little too far to suggest that the first-time voters of 2010 have to sit back and watch a government that lied to them slowly dismember their university system.
The Dacre-Rusbridger-me-Blair-Cameron generation is the sub-prime, casino, PFI, never-never generation. It has no right to heap its debts and failures on its children, and it will only get away with it if those children fall for its outdated ideas of class and good behaviour. I hope they don’t.
The occupiers are tweeting at @UCLOccupation, emailing at ucloccupation[at]gmail[dot]com and blogging at http://ucloccupation.wordpress.com/
Brian Cathcart teaches journalism at Kingston University London. Follow him on twitter at @BrianCathcart
29 Apr 10 | Uncategorized
Former diplomat Craig Murray has revealed that polling company YouGov has accused him of libel.
Murray posted an article last week suggesting that YouGov had “rigged” a poll after last week’s UK election leaders’ debate in favour of Conservative leader David Cameron. The YouGov poll gave Cameron a clear lead over Labour’s Gordon Brown and the Liberal Democrats’ Nick Clegg. Other polls suggested a much tighter result.
Read Murray’s account here
18 Jan 10 | Uncategorized
On the eve of delivering his Royal Society speech calling for change to libel laws, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg expressed his support of Index on Censorship, Sense about Science and English PEN’s Libel Reform campaign, saying:
“English libel law as it stands is simply unfair and in desperate need of reform. Britain has a proud history of freedom and liberty, but the current system allows people and corporations with money to impose silence on others at will.
“The Libel Reform Campaign is doing excellent work is leading the way in calling for this outdated and unfair system to be changed.”
This afternoon in a speech to the Royal Society on science and politics Clegg said:
“I am deeply concerned about the stifling effect English libel laws are having on scientific debate.
“The freedom to evaluate critically the work of others is the essence of good quality research.
“Of course people have the right to protect their reputations from damaging and false statements made recklessly, irresponsibly or with malice. But scientists must be allowed to question claims fearlessly, especially those that relate to medical care, environmental damage and public safety, if we are to protect ourselves against dubious research practices, phoney treatments and vested corporate interests.
“English libel law as it stands is obstructing that process and threatens the public good as a result.
“The prospect of a costly, protracted legal battle hangs over journalists, editors and academics seeking to ask basic questions about the evidence for practices they believe may put people at serious risk.
“Our libel law and practice have turned a country once famed for its traditions of freedom and liberty into a legal farce where people and corporations with money can impose silence on others at will.
“I believe in raucous freedom of speech, not gagging orders in our courts. Libel tourism is making a mockery of British justice, with foreign plaintiffs able to bring cases against foreign defendants when the publications in question may have sold just a handful of copies in England.”
Forty seven Liberal Democrat MPs have signed a Parliamentary Early Day Motion tabled by Dr Evan Harris calling for reform of our libel laws. 12,500 people have signed the Libel Reform campaign petition.
