BBC News – Comic Dara O’Briain says libel laws ‘quash dissent’
Libel laws in England and Wales are being used to bully people into silence and quash dissent, campaigners including comic Dara O’Briain claim.
O’Briain told the Law Society he backed calls to reform the “ridiculous system” that was attracting “libel tourists”.
The Mock the Week host was speaking as academics, medical and science editors and human rights activists prepared to lobby MPs and peers to reform the laws.
Head over to the highly-informative Jack Of Kent for the full blog post on the need for reform of English libel law and detailed discussion of the aspects.
The formal campaign was launched today for fundamental reform of English libel law.
England’s libel law is currently a public danger and a public disgrace.
It is a public danger because there are debates about a range of important matters – about public health and public safety, about the financing of terrorism and the soundness of banks, about the conduct of powerful international corporations and the conduct of identifiable public officials, especially police officers – which are not taking place or are distorted because of libel chill.
And it is a public disgrace, rightly earning international derision and hostility. England may become the only Western country where one cannot buy editions of US papers; and media companies in many countries are reported to be contemplating simply pulling English language web editions.
…So please do support and then engage fully with the Libel Reform campaign: not just for now, but for as long as it takes for the law to be properly changed.
Great photos of the Campaign for Libel Reform event feature at JourdeMayne’s Blog.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
DAVID MABUS!!! Wow, haven’t seen you in a while. Good to see you’re still spamming irrelivant blogs with your nostradamus conspiracy theorist gobbledygook.
Re: David Mabus spam – Heh, they’ve arrived here before, been emailing me a while in the past. Apparently it’s a mark-of-high-regard to get his attention (‘you are a noted skeptic’ sort of attitude and there’s even video of George Hrab going ‘yay!!‘ about being on a cc’d email with Randi, et al) – but I just see it as ‘more spam’. I don’t need his regard to consider myself ‘a noted skeptic’, I’d rather just be ‘a hard-working one’.
It looks like there’s serious and growing opposition in the UK to these ridiculous laws. Good.
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