28 Nov 11 | Uncategorized
The Libel Reform Campaign owes a lot of its success so far to the UK scientific and sceptic movement. From Skeptics In the Pub to the Geek Calendar, to the Big Libel Gig, science enthusiasts and anti-quackery activists have been at the core of our work.
These are people who understand the need for free inquiry — the need to ask questions and get answers, and to debate until some solution is found.
Perhaps because of this tenaciousness, there is a terrifying frequency with which scientists, science writers and enthusiasts seem to end up being threatened with defamation suits.
Ben Goldacre, MJ Robbins and most famously Simon Singh have had threats and cases brought against them. Nature magazine is currently being pursued.
But it’s not just the big names that are subject to threats. It’s emerged that a 17-year-old schoolboy sceptic, Rhys Morgan, has been threatened by a US clinic offering “alternative” cancer treatments.
The Burzynski clinic in Austen, Texas hit the news last week after journalist Luke Bainbridge wrote in the Observer that celebrities including comic Peter Kay were raising funds to help his young niece go to Texas in a bid to cure her cancer.
No one could possibly blame Bainbridge’s family for following all possible avenues to cure the three-year-old girl, or Kay for offering to help. But that is quite a separate issue from whether Rhys Morgan (or indeed Quackometer blogger Le Canard Noir, who is also facing threats) is entitled to question the efficacy or otherwise of alternative treatments.
They do not, generally, do this out of a mischief (though that always helps). Sceptics pursue “woo” pedlars because they see them as at best rip-off merchants and at worst offering false hope to patients and even steering them away from proper medicine.
Rhys Morgan has behaved with remarkable level-headedness in the face of intimidation from the clinic’s marketing man, Marc Stephens. And once again, UK sceptics have gathered online to show their support (at time of writing, Morgan’s site is down after high profile tweeters including Stephen Fry and Ben Goldacre linked to him in support).
Rhys and Quackometer can count on support of Libel Reform Campaign too.
11 Nov 11 | Uncategorized
A father of three from Nuneaton, UK, appeared in the High Court yesterday to face libel allegations over a book review he wrote on Amazon.
Vaughan Jones, 28, appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday for a hearing to defend himself against the libel suit from online entrepreneur Chris McGrath.
McGrath, author of “The Attempted Murder of God: Hidden Science You Really Need to Know,” 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’s website during September and October 2010. Jones also outed McGrath as the author of the book, which had been written under the pseudonym “Scrooby”.
McGrath is not only suing Jones for his allegedly defamatory comments, but Amazon, Richard Dawkins himself, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation.
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.
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.
John Kampfner, the Chief Executive of Index on Censorship, said: “That 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.”
Kampfner added that the Libel Reform Campaign, which is underway with English Pen and Sense about Science, is hoping to commit to a bill in the next Queen’s speech to reform the chilling effect libel has on freedom of speech.
The hearing continues today
04 Nov 11 | Events
Please join us in parliament on Wednesday 9 November to tell MPs why libel reform has to happen now.
The Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill last week urged the government to strengthen their proposals for reform, in line with recommendations from the Libel Reform Campaign. There is still work to be done to protect free speech from the stifling effects of current libel law: to provide a stronger, wider and more accessible public interest defence; and to make sure proposals on the internet work for bloggers and forums.
Our biggest battle will be to make sure libel reform does not get pushed off a crowded parliamentary agenda. It is vital that ensure Parliamentarians know the strength of support for libel reform. Please join Index on Censorship, English PEN and Sense About Science and supporters including Simon Singh, Which?, Society of Editors, Global Witness, AOL and Liberty:
Wednesday 9 November 2011, 6pm
Committee Room 10, House of Commons
Every day we hear about new cases of scientists, publishers and bloggers being threatened with libel action. We have we got to this historic point with your support. If we let the momentum slip now, the opportunity for change could be lost.
We really hope you can join us to show MPs that libel law reform can’t wait. Please let us know if you can come, [email protected]
A copy of the invitation can be found here.
19 Oct 11 | Europe and Central Asia, News and features
As Parliament takes a significant step in its slow removal of the UK’s pariah status on defamation, John Kampfner describes the progress on libel reform
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