from The Globe and Mail, 13th February 2010
An unlikely group of scientists, stand-up comedians, novelists and human-rights activists are campaigning to reform Britain's stringent libel laws, Elizabeth Renzetti writes
LONDON -- Even halfway around the world, Britain's libel laws have the power to silence dissent. English science writer Simon Singh discovered this when he was interviewed by an Australian journalist about a book he had co-written, Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial. The journalist went off to write a story about homeopathy, only to have the newspaper's lawyers kill it before publication. They were worried about being charged with defamation in London, almost 20,000 kilometres away.
London's reputation as a centre for libel claims - in local slang, it's "the town called sue" - has become so dire, according to law-reform advocates, that it poses a real threat to scientific, academic and press freedom. "Libel tourism" refers to court cases tried in London even if none of the litigants, or even the publication, is based here.
Critics of Britain's moth-eaten libel laws like to cite the examples as if they are reading from a novel by Franz Kafka: A Danish radiologist speaks at a conference in Oxford and is sued by a U.S. company; a British cardiologist, attending a conference in Washington, is quoted in a U.S. online magazine and is taken to court in London by a Boston-based medical manufacturer.
Now, a wide-ranging group including scientists, stand-up comedians, novelists and human-rights activists is throwing its support behind a campaign to reform libel laws.