06 Dec 10 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
US Attorney General Eric Holder has said that he has authorised investigations into the possibility of prosecuting those responsible for the Wikileaks Cablegate leaks.
Speaking today (6 December), Holder said: “I personally authorized a number of things last week and that’s an indication of the seriousness with which we take this matter and the highest level of involvement at the Department of Justice.”
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06 Aug 10 | Index Index, minipost
The US government has introduced new legislation which would allow the FBI to demand personal information from private email accounts. The bill would enable FBI field officers to access information regarding the times and dates emails were sent, as well as the private email addresses of correspondents. The FBI would not need to possess a court order and would simply need to deem the information relevant to demand private details from internet providers. ISP’s would be forced to keep the requests secret.
20 Jul 10 | News and features
The US senate last night passed legislation to protect US journalists, writers and publishers from “libel tourists” — litigants who sue Americans in foreign jurisdictions which place a lower emphasis on free speech
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14 Jul 10 | Index Index, minipost
Yesterday (13 July), the Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation to protect US journalists and publishers from “libel tourism”. The SPEECH (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage) Act will now go before the full senate. The impetus for the bill follows a number of law suits instigated against American writers in foreign courts in order to exploit their weak libel laws. For example, New York based academic Rachel Ehrenfeld was sued in London despite only 23 copies of her book, on the financing of terrorism, being sold in the UK. If passed, the proposal will prevent federal courts from recognising foreign libel ruling that are inconsistent with the First Amendment and will allow affected persons to apply for a declaratory judgement confirming that verdicts against them are non-enforceable. The bill, co-sponsored by Democrat Patrick Leahy and Republican Jeff Sessions, is believed to have a high prospect of being enacted because of its broad cross-party support.
