The US House of Representatives has voted in favour of a libel tourism bill, which would protect US writers and bloggers from English libel rulings. The bill now goes to the Senate.
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English libel law turns US protection for free speech on its head. Floyd Abrams considers how the UK became an international libel tribunal
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Yesterday’s Sunday Times carried a good piece on US legislators’ attempts to bring in laws to counteract English libel laws. Index on Censorship editor Jo Glanville contributed this:
“The reports NGOs (write) take many months, even years, to put together and rely on anonymous sources who fear for their lives.”
“By contrast, many of these libel tourism claims are not about disputing factual errors, they are really about shutting up critics who have exposed serious abuses.”
Justice minister Bridget Prentice has announced a consultation into costs in English libel cases.
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