by KEN MACDONALD
Prominent amongst those things that we believe define us is our ability to exercise our vocal chords. This right is something we instinctively feel should only be limited in the most exceptional circumstances. And we are right to take this view.
But I think we need to acknowledge that the freedom to speak frankly and freely has been under threat in our country in recent years. Sometimes it seems that Home Secretaries have pretended to promise boundless security and the rest of us have suffered the consequences.
So this debate is not just about defamation and privacy laws and libel tourism. And it goes beyond superinjunctions and the less than attractive corporate bullying that we see of scientists and researchers.
It includes the broadening of criminal speech, so that even religions, belief systems, are granted the special protection of the law and you can commit a crime by describing them in a particular way.
And it’s about terrorism legislation. It’s about criminalising the possession of articles, often consisting of books freely available on the Internet, and foolish and unnecessary new offences of encouraging terrorism, as though incitement were no enough.
So where do we place English libel law in this battle ground? How does it face up to this shining principle, this right to speak freely, and to exchange views and ideas without the fear of the dock or the witness box? Which side is our libel law on?
Well, the Americans are pretty clear. Many of their state legislatures have enacted laws protecting US citizens from the chilling grasp of our current law, by making English libel awards unenforceable in US courts.
And now the US House of Representatives is considering a bill to protect all American citizens in the same way.
Of course the Americans have long given free speech far greater protection than we have. To their credit, many of us would say. But it’s not just the Americans.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has said that our libel law was encouraging critical reporting on matters of serious public interest and adversely affecting the ability of scholars and journalists to publish their work.
Critically it said the internet meant that all this was having a depressing effect upon freedom of expression across the world.
Let me give some examples:
October 2007, Kiev Post story about allegedly corrupt land deals in that city. Obviously written in Ukrainian. Only 100 subscribers here. Yet Rinat Akhemetov was permitted to sue here.
January and February 2007. A Ukrainian Internet news sites published an article about the same man’s youth. A hundred or so subscribers here. Again he was allowed to sue here.
Now Ukraine is probably a country that could do with more, rather than less, free speech. To put it in moderate terms, it’s a shame our courts are being used to deliver the opposite.
And it’s not only foreigners who feel the chill wind of all this.
A UK hospital consultant speaking at a medical conference in North American criticised a new piece of medical equipment. A specialist Canadian website carried his comments. He’s now being sued, not in North America – where the claim would be thrown out with contempt – but here by the manufacturer.
And famously, Simon Singh, the well-known science writer. He wrote an article in the Guardian saying that the British Chiropractic Association ‘happily promotes bogus treatments’.
Since their treatments include the suggestion that spinal manipulation can cure migraine and eliminate ear infections, I’m tempted to express an opinion of my own. But I’d better not. The BCA are suing Singh. Personally.
Index on Censorship for more