UK Groups Create Libel Law Guide for Bloggers

iMediaEthics publishes international media ethics news stories and investigations into journalism ethics lapses.

Menu

Home » Libel»

Sense about Science and five other groups wrote an instructional guide for UK bloggers and online commenter faced with libel threats. (Credit: Sense about Science)

Sense about Science and five media advocacy groups created a new guide explaining libel law to UK bloggers, Journalism.co.uk reported.

The new guide is titled “So you’ve had a threatening letter.  What can you do?” and advises bloggers and online commenters what to do if faced with a libel charge.

The six-page guide advises specifically on English libel law for both bloggers and online commenters.

Noting that “English libel law is notoriously complicated, costly and skewed in favour of” the claimant, the guide walks bloggers and commenters — anyone who’s posted something about anyone – through the process of a libel claim.

It advises, for example, “if you receive a phone call threatening legal action,” get the claim in writing.

Sense about Science project researcher Rose Wu explained what prompted the guide in an e-mail to StinkyJournalism.

“The publicity following our publications and the cases against Simon Singh, Peter Wilmshurst and others attracted a lot of correspondence from a range of sectors including academics, historians, editors and publishers, consumer groups, documentary film makers and NGOs,” Wu wrote.

“Sense About Science has been contacted about libel threats received by online patient groups and by bloggers who write about medical conditions, consumer safety and scientific research. In response to a lack of information about the effects of the libel laws on these groups, we began documenting these cases and conducted a survey of online forums and writers in September 2010.”

As a result, Wu wrote Sense about Science found through the survey that most threatened with a libel suit weren’t “professional writers or journalists.” So Sense about Science formed the guide “to help people threatened with legal action for blogs, comments or articles posted online, who have no clear place to go for he

The five groups that worked on the guide with Sense about Science are: Index on Censorship, English PEN, the Media Legal Defence Initiative, the Association of British Science Writers and the World Federation of Science Journalists.

Online Journalism Blog wrote “I’m curious why they haven’t published it as a series of webpages to make it easier to find via search, and to link to – maybe I’m missing something. In the meantime, the PDF is well worth a download.”

“We cannot expect, and the public do not credit, forum discussions with the same standards of fact-checking as national news outlets, but the law currently insists on this. We agree with the service providers that better protection for online discussion is needed in the Government’s new Defamation Bill,” The Guardian quoted Sense about Science’s managing director Tracey Brown as saying.

Meanwhile in Britain, comments written on social networking site Twitter have led to arrests and libel suits.  See StinkyJournalism’s story on Twitter libel here.

StinkyJournalism also wrote in April when UK justice secretary Jack Straw announced that he wanted to reform libel law in the UK.  See that post here.

The Guardian provided the link to the petition for Libel Reform here.  Sense about Science project researcher Wu explained that Sense about Science, English PEN and the Index and Censorship created the Libel Reform Campaign in Dec. 2009.  The purpsoe is “to seek major changes to the laws in order to protect free speech and the public interest,” according to Wu.

Sense about Science also was involved in the libel case of Simon Singh. Sense about Science bills itself as  “an independent charitable trust promoting good science and evidence in public debates.”

Submit a tip / Report a problem

UK Groups Create Libel Law Guide for Bloggers

Share this article:

คาสิโน
สล็อต
sa gaming
tkb365
https://tkb399.com/login
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
ทำความรู้จักกับ
PG
สล็อต
tkb138
sa gaming
https://www.hotelplayagolf.com/es/instalaciones/piscinas
tkb365
บาคาร่า
สล็อตเว็บตรง
บาคาร่า
ทดลองเล่นสล็อตฟรี
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต pg
สล็อตเว็บตรง
สล็อตเว็บตรง
tkb138
ซุปเปอร์สล็อต
tkb138
tkb365
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
changbet789
สูตรสล็อต pg ทดลองเล่นฟรี
สล็อต ดาวน์โหลด รับเครดิตฟรี
สล็อต
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
tkb138
https://www.hotelalbora.com/
https://tkb108.co/register
tkb696
สล็อตเว็บตรง
changbet789
สล็อตทดลอง
pg
betflix
pg slot
สล็อต
pg slot
สล็อตเว็บจริง100%
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
sbobet
ดลองเล่นสล็อต pg
tkb138
https://titanium-hotel.com/
สล็อต
tkb138
taokaebet
tkb777
อันดับแรก
คาสิโน
changbet789
แจกเครดิตฟรี 100%
ทดลองเล่นสล็อตทุกค่ายฟรี
สล็อต
changbet789
tkb365
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
changbet789
finfinbet
คาสิโน
changbet789
tkb108
tkbneko
สล็อตเว็บตรง
สล็อต
สล็อต
สล็อต
https://www.gday96.com/
สล็อต888
สล็อต
PG
บาคาร่าเว็บตรง
changbet789
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต pg
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
ทดลองเล่นสล็อตฟรี
tkb365
tkb365
tkb365
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkb555
tkbking
tkbking
tkbking
tkbking
tkbking
tkbking
thb889
thb889
thb889
thb889
thb889
thb889
thb889
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb4
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb9
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
tkb33
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
finfinbet
TKB96
tkb96
tkb96
tkb96
tkb96
tkb96
tkb96
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbfun
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpg
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbpussy
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbrich
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkbsexy
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
tkb777
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
taokaebet
tkbsexy
tkbrich
tkbpussy
tkbpg
tkbfun
tkb96
tkb33
tkb9
tkb4
thb889
tkbking
tkb555
tkb365
changbet789
บาคาร่า
คาสิโนออนไลน์
sa gaming
คาสิโนออนไลน์สด
สล็อต
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต pg ซื้อฟรีสปิน
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
บาคาร่า
สล็อต เว็บตรงไม่ผ่านเอเย่นต์ไม่มีขั้นต่ำ
ทดลองเล่นสล็อต
สล็อต