The Staggers: Libel

I've just heard the fantastic news that the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) has dropped its libel case against Simon Singh.

The scientist, who has contributed to the NS in the past, was sued by the BCA after he wrote a piece for the Guardian describing the association's claim that spinal manipulation could be used to treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding conditions as "bogus".

But ... read more

I've just heard the fantastic news that Simon Singh has won his libel appeal against the British Chiropractic Association. He now has the right to rely on the defence of fair comment.

Singh, who has contributed to the NS in the past, was sued by the BCA after he wrote a piece for the Guardian describing the association's claim that spinal manipulation could be used to treat children with ... read more

One of the few positive developments in recent months has been Jack Straw's belated support for libel reform.

In a plan first trailed to the NS, the Justice Secretary promised to reduce lawyers' success fees from a maximum of 100 per cent to 10 per cent. Significantly, he confirmed that the measure could be introduced before the election through secondary legislation.

Action in this area is long overdue. Research by Oxford ... read more

Jack Straw's announcement of plans to cut the amount lawyers can charge in "no win, no fee" cases by 90 per cent is welcome and long overdue.

It was in an interview with Jason Cowley for the NS that Straw first promised to introduce a "radically reduced cap" on grossly inflated success fees. Our leader in that issue called for a 10 per cent cap on fees that ... read more

Tiger Woods, has had, to put it mildly, a rough time of it recently. The media's round-the-clock coverage of his sexual "transgressions" led to accusations of a witch-hunt.

But judging by Associated Press's decision to name Tiger Woods as the "Athlete of the Decade", journalists are still able to detach his performance on the golf course from his misdemeanours elsewhere.

Most notably, half of the ballots were returned after the 27 November ... read more

On Tuesday I blogged on the disappearance of Newsnight's Trafigura investigation from its website. Now it emerges that a judgment on the libel action brought against the BBC by the oil firm is due today.

David Leigh's Guardian piece curiously fails to link the video's removal to the imminent legal ruling, though the story was covered elsewhere on the site.

BBC lawyers are said to be "engaged in ... read more

Barry George, the man acquitted of killing Jill Dando, has been awarded "substantial" damages and an apology from the publisher of the Sun and the News of the World.

George, who has a personality disorder, spent eight years in jail for the shooting of the BBC TV presenter before being acquitted at a retrial last year. He gave an interview because, his lawyer said: "He knew there would be a ... read more

Carter-Ruck may have suffered a humiliating defeat when it attempted to prevent the Guardian and others from reporting on parliament, but it never abandoned its attempt to sue the BBC's Newsnight over a feature on the alleged dumping of toxic waste by Trafigura.

Now Newsnight has apparently removed a video of the investigation from its website. Bloggers have attempted to evade the gag by posting ... read more

Tiger Woods's injunction against the British press has once again made the UK the laughing stock of the world when it comes to free speech. It's remarkable that Woods and his lawyers have embarked on this self-defeating course of action.

The pragmatic case against the injunction is that in the age of the internet any gag is destined to fail on its own terms. As the humiliating experience of Trafigura and ... read more

Guest blog by Samira Shackle

The Guardian's front page today details the collapse of a case to prevent the reporting of a question tabled in parliament, in an important victory for press freedom. The judgment comes in the face of ever-further-reaching injunctions and super-injunctions.

In case you have (somehow) missed the story, the law firm Carter-Ruck -- described as the "sworn enemy" of the Press Complaints Commission by Sir Christopher Meyer, ... read more

After the Guardian's victory over Carter-Ruck yesterday, there's more good news for the cause of free expression today. The distinguished scientist Simon Singh has been given leave to appeal in the libel case brought against him by the British Chiropractic Association.

Singh, who has contributed to the NS in the past, was sued by the BCA after he wrote a piece for the Guardian describing the BCA's claim that ... read more