UK Minister Unveils Plan To Cut Down On Libel Tourism

from the it's-a-start dept

There's been a lot of concern in the UK about how its defamation/libel laws are quite draconian, and are often used for "libel tourism," (bringing cases in the UK, just because of those stricter laws). This has resulted in a serious backlash and in promises to explore changing UK libel law. UK Justice minister Jack Straw has now released a proposal on updating defamation law in the UK, and while it's a start, it's not clear it goes far enough. The good news is that "public interest" and "good faith" would become defenses to libel claims. This is definitely important, but it could go much further. It seems that the burden should actually be on the party claiming defamation to prove that the content was put forth in bad faith. Still, it's good to see indications that the UK is serious about updating its tragically out of date defamation laws.

Filed Under: defamation, jack straw, libel, libel tourism, public interest, uk