30 Nov 10 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Today in the High Court US medical device company NMT Medical was ordered to pay £200,000 into court in their libel action against cardiologist Dr Peter Wilmshurst. Master Foster ruled that if NMT Medical do not pay this money by 18 January 2010 their libel claim will be struck out and the court will decide how much of Dr Wilmshurst’s costs NMT Medical should pay.
Dr Wilmshurst has been fighting since 2007 to defend his comments about a clinical trial of a heart device manufactured by NMT Medical. Losing the case could mean he loses his house. NMT Medical recently threatened to sue Dr Wilmshurst for libel again for comments he made about his case in a BBC Radio 4 Today Programme piece on the chilling effects of England’s libel laws on scientific and medical discussions
27 Nov 10 | Uncategorized
Conservative Julian Lewis, MP for New Forest East, is not an MP who got in hot water over his expenses.
We need to get that out of the way, because any suggestion that Julian Lewis, MP, was not, er, wearing an entirely straight crease when he claimed £119 for a wall-mounted trouser press on expenses would be incorrect.
So incorrect that were you to suggest, say on the letters page of your local newspaper that what MPs including Lewis claimed on expenses was “unacceptable”, you would very quickly receive a solicitors letter, ordering you that should you ever repeat the suggestion, you would more than likely end up facing a lengthy, expensive defamation suit.
This is exactly what happened to Mr Richard Grant of Burley in the New Forest.
Mr Grant wrote a letter to his local paper, the New Milton Advertiser and Lymington Times, expressing exasperation at his local MP, Sir Christopher Chope.
Grant was exasperated at what he saw as Sir Christopher’s unwillingness to get on with the job of working with the Lib Dems in the coalition government.
As an aside, he added that neighbouring MP Lewis seemed, in his view, to be behaving in the same way.
Lewis responded in the paper’s letters page, which one would imagine would be the end of the story.
Unfortunately not so.
Mr Grant soon received a letter from Lewis’s solicitors, warning him that any suggestion that the MP’s expense claims were “unacceptable” would be considered defamatory.
Grant has not taken this lying down, and has written to David Cameron asking for an apology.
Read a little more over at the Sunday Telegraph (including comment from Index and the Libel Reform Campaign)
25 Nov 10 | Events
The Libel Reform Campaign (Index on Censorship, English PEN and Sense About Science) would like you to join us to celebrate our first anniversary at a drinks reception with:
Lord McNally, Minister of State for Justice
Richard Allan, Director of European Policy for Facebook
Richard Mollet, Chief Executive of the Publishers Association
In November 2009, after a year-long inquiry, the Free Speech Is Not For Sale report was published by English PEN and Index on Censorship. In June 2009, Sense About Science launched a campaign publicising libel threats against scientists such as Simon Singh and Peter Wilmshurst. In December 2009 the three charities came together to form the Libel Reform Campaign. The impetus this lobby has created is startling.
Over 50,000 people have joined the campaign and together we have campaigned for major reforms to England’s libel laws to protect free speech, including a public interest defence, restrictions on corporate bullying, recognition of internet publishing, and improvements to existing defences.
Libel reform was not on the political agenda before our campaign; now the coalition government has announced it will bring forward a draft bill early in 2011. We look forward to seeing you on 2nd December to mark this progress and share our thoughts on the challenges ahead.
7pm, Thursday 2nd December
Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA
RSVP: [email protected]
Add your voice to the Libel Reform Campaign at www.libelreform.org
