Wednesday 9^th November 2011

Hundreds of campaigners gathered in a crowded committee room in the House of Commons to tell parliamentarians that reform of the libel laws to protect public interest discussions can’t come soon enough.

Citizens Advice, Nature, Mumsnet, Liberty, Which?, The Publishers Association, Global Witness, Facebook, AOL and libel defendants Dr Simon Singh and Dr Peter Wilmshurst spoke with the Libel Reform Campaign to tell MPs that the laws allow the rich and powerful to bully critics into shutting down public debate. Richard Dunstan of Citizens Advice described threats they received trying to publish a report on “a secretive, exploitative and quite possibly illegal practice called `civil recovery’” and said “we need a clear and effective public interest defence.” Hosts of online discussions and social media sites told MPs the laws need to be modernised to accommodate the internet to prevent them becoming, as Rowan Davis of Mumsnet described, “tactical targets for those who wish to clamp down on criticism or investigation of their activities.” Campaigners were unanimous that libel reform needs urgent action. Dr Simon Singh said “people are still being threatened.”

Justice Minister Lord McNally announced that his department will publish a new Defamation Bill in January 2012. The Government brought forward a draft Defamation Bill last March which went through two public consultations and in October the Joint Committee set up to scrutinise the draft Bill published its recommendations. Lord McNally said the new Bill will respond to proposals from the public and the scrutiny committee and told campaigners to “keep campaigning until Spring to get it into the Queen’s Speech.”

Dr Julian Huppert MP, who hosted the event, said to do this we all need to write to our MPs to make sure they know how important this is. He addressed the dozens of parliamentarians at the meeting too, saying: “Too often we see parties trying to find nuanced differences: in this case, we need agreement. We can make sure this happens, and make sure it is passed. I will keep on working on this and hope you will all do too.”

Citizens Advice has spent an entire year’s research and campaign contingency budget to libel-proof a report that it still can’t publish in full. At a parliamentary meeting hosted by the Libel Reform Campaign, Citizens Advice will tell MPs that the threat of libel action from firms employed by High Street stores has prevented them from warning the public as clearly and strongly as they would like that demands for payment under civil recovery schemes may be breaking consumer protection regulations.

The revelation comes on the same day that the scientific journal Nature finds itself in the High Court in a libel action that has prevented it from discussing the behaviour of a journal editor for 2 years.

Citizens Advice and Nature join Mumsnet, Liberty, Which?, the Publishers Association, Global Witness, Facebook and libel case defendants to tell MPs that reform of the laws must include a more robust public interest defence and legislation is needed urgently to prevent further intimidation of public debate.