The Anonymous Widower

The End Of The Beginning

Last night, I went to the  celebration party of the Libel Reform Campaign at the FreeWord Centre in Farringdon. For a start, I liked the board outside the venue.

Free Word Of The Day

Ostensibly it was to celebrate the passing into law of the Defamation Act of 2013.

But there is still work to do. They gave out a flyer last night, which stated these loose ends to be tied.

• We need clarity that the new statutory public interest defence will not lead to the importation of the problems of the Reynolds defence.
• We are still awaiting new court procedures which must provide for early strike out of trivial claims along with the Government’s plans for costs protection.
• We need the regulations and procedures to accompany section 5 on internet publication to deliver an effective defence.
• The Northern Ireland Assembly has failed to adopt the Defamation Act.

My support has only been moral and financial in a small way. But if you read this blog you will find many stories where libel has been inappropriately used to suppress views or information.

As the post yesterday about Nespresso showed, big companies and powerful individuals, are not slow to use the law to protect their interests.

Hopefully though, the Defamation Act 2013 will have removed one of their most effective weapons, the inappropriate and threatening use of the law of libel.

We are in for some interesting times, as the lawyers of the powerful, search for new ways to suppress the truth.

But perhaps the biggest lesson of last night, was that a well-organised campaign, with the support of decent and right-thinking individuals, acting in the public interest, can successfully drive from conception to execution, by using the Internet and the media, and motivating the general public to push their legislators hard.

Similar tactics were used by the Lighter Later campaign, but sadly that well-run campaign I supported, was killed by the dinosaurs in Parliament. The difference was probably that, the Libel Reform Campaign had the backing of all three political parties.

The trouble is that some groups may use similar tactics and methods to stop projects and ideas, that most believe should be implemented. Two that come to mind are the cancer database announced yesterday and HS2.

If I was to propose a campaign, it would be one to make the UK fully metric. That will never happen.

June 13, 2013 - Posted by AnonW | World | Law, Libel, Politics