Drew Wilson
March 29th, 2009, 05:37 PM
The UK's libel laws mean more and more websites globally will be forced to respond to threats of litigation with the strategy of "take it down, take it down quickly, take it down again."
Libel laws in England and Wales have caused plenty of controversy and the UK is known as the defamation capital of the world. Indeed, defamation is one of the UK's growing export industries. UK jurisdiction awards the highest damages in Europe and, with costs often running into the millions, has the dubious accolade of being the most expensive place to bring a defamation claim.
But what does this do to free speech on the internet? Freedom of expression and the right to opinion and comment is protected by law. Balanced against this is the right of individuals (and companies) not to have their reputations unfairly harmed by false or defamatory statements. This balance is delicate enough in the traditional media, but on the internet, where statements can be available to a global audience at the click of a mouse, the delicate nature of the balance is amplified exponentially. The global nature of the medium means that anything published anywhere could quite easily be claimed to lead to damages under UK law.
Plenty of print and website editors capitulate daily to the threat of libel by not publishing a piece or removing material from a website. Many of these threats are unjustified. So where exactly is the balance between freedom of speech and protection from defamation for internet service providers and publishers?
More... (http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/will-net-free-speech-survive-british-libel-litigation)
Libel laws in England and Wales have caused plenty of controversy and the UK is known as the defamation capital of the world. Indeed, defamation is one of the UK's growing export industries. UK jurisdiction awards the highest damages in Europe and, with costs often running into the millions, has the dubious accolade of being the most expensive place to bring a defamation claim.
But what does this do to free speech on the internet? Freedom of expression and the right to opinion and comment is protected by law. Balanced against this is the right of individuals (and companies) not to have their reputations unfairly harmed by false or defamatory statements. This balance is delicate enough in the traditional media, but on the internet, where statements can be available to a global audience at the click of a mouse, the delicate nature of the balance is amplified exponentially. The global nature of the medium means that anything published anywhere could quite easily be claimed to lead to damages under UK law.
Plenty of print and website editors capitulate daily to the threat of libel by not publishing a piece or removing material from a website. Many of these threats are unjustified. So where exactly is the balance between freedom of speech and protection from defamation for internet service providers and publishers?
More... (http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/will-net-free-speech-survive-british-libel-litigation)