Ben Bland is the latest journalist to be barred from working in Singapore. Here, he explains the city state’s stranglehold on free expression
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The use of so-called “insult laws” to censor legitimate criticism of a country’s leader is a tool of authoritarian regimes everywhere, and now, it seems Iraq too. On Tuesday Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was awarded damages of 100 million dinars ($85,000) in damages in a defamation case against Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
The paper had run a story describing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s administration as “increasingly autocratic” and quoted three unnamed Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) members as saying “elements of Maliki’s rule resembled a dictatorship”.
Almost as if to prove him right the court — meeting in closed session and without hearing any evidence from the Guardian — found in his favour. While the post Saddam-era constitution’s Article 38 guarantees freedom of speech, there are a rack of laws in the country’s largely unreformed Penal Code that prohibit insult on pain of jail.
In this case INIS — clearly embarrassed by the loose talk among their supposed “secret” policemen — were looking not to jail them, but to secure a public apology, the closure of the Guardian office in Baghdad, disclosure of the unnamed sources and $1m in damages for Maliki, even though Maliki’s spokesmen maintain that he is not behind the writ.
Direct appeals to Maliki’s office saw off the threat to close the Guardian’s Baghdad office, but the action, begun in May 2009, rolled on to its conclusion on 10 November. The paper is to appeal.
During the case, said the Guardian, they had not been given the opportunity to present any evidence or had even been asked to give a written statement to the court.
The court asked a panel of three prominent members of the country’s independent journalists’ union for their opinion. Their view was that the article, by the paper’s award-winning correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, was neither defamatory nor damaging.
The NCIS sought and got a second opinion from a group of five experts of their own. This group, including the host of a legal affairs show on state TV, Salah Najim al-Maliki, concluded the opposite in what the Guardian was told –– they were not allowed to see their report — was “very hostile and unfavourable” language.
The allegedly defamatory article was published on the day that the Iraqi PM arrived in London to meet potential UK investors in Iraq. Interestingly both sides argued that the supposed slight that Maliki suffered did not deserve payment of damages.
Dozens of media outlets have sprung up in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein and Iraqi journalists enjoy considerable freedom compared to before and to other Middle Eastern countries. Nevertheless the tools to prohibit insult are still in the penal code toolbox if needed.
Countries with laws prohibiting insult of public officials keep them “to intimidate” opposition, says US-based World Press Freedom Committee chairman Richard N. Winfield in a recent report by the group. “Complete repeal is the only sensible remedy.”
Launch of the Libel Reform campaign and the English PEN and Index on Censorship “Free Speech Is Not For Sale” report
12 – 2pm, 10th November 09. Light lunch provided.
Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA
Index on Censorship and English PEN fear:
“We’re becoming a global free speech pariah”
“Our libel laws allow people accused of funding terrorism or dumping toxic waste in Africa to silence their critics whilst ‘super-injunctions’ stop the public from even knowing that such allegations exist. We need to reform our libel laws now, and that’s why we’re launching a national campaign to persuade our politicians to do so.”
Jonathan Heawood, Director of English PEN
“If we don’t act we’re at risk of becoming a global pariah. There are US States who view English libel law as so damaging to free speech they have passed laws to effectively block the decisions of English judges. Our report is an important milestone in modernising our antiquated and chilling approach to free expression.”
John Kampfner, the CEO of Index on Censorship
English PEN and Index on Censorship will be publishing their report on English libel law reform, and launching the Libel Reform campaign, at the Free Word Centre on 10 November.
English PEN and Index on Censorship have been looking into these issues in detail for over a year now and it has become increasingly clear that English libel law and the use of ‘super-injunctions’ are having a profoundly negative impact on freedom of expression, both in the UK and abroad. Writers such as Simon Singh, and respected current affairs programme Newsnight, have found themselves facing defamation suits, whilst human rights campaigners are often forced to edit and retract articles in the face of potential libel action.
The Libel Reform campaign will bring together Index on Censorship and English PEN to mount a national campaign with a website launched on 10 November to persuade politicians from all parties of the importance of reforming these unjust laws.
Update: Read the Independent’s interview with Index on Censorship’s John Kampfner here
A new report by English PEN Index on Censorship argues that fear of libel action means that freedom of expression is under threat as never before, John Kampfner tells the Independent’s Ian Burrell
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