Posted on 11/08/2009 12:06:50 PM PST by Psion
LIBEL LAWS FORCE US NEWS OUT OF ENGLAND
By Maurice Chittenden and Steven Swinford
American newspapers and magazines may stop selling copies in Britain and block access to their websites because of our draconian libel laws.
An article that would be regarded as free speech in America under its constitution’s first amendment becomes actionable in the High Court in London once it is deemed to have been published here, however small the readership.
Such is the UK’s reputation as a world centre for “libel tourism” that newspapers are considering whether it is still worth sending a few hundred copies to British subscribers or for sale in hotels.
The warning comes in a memorandum submitted to a Commons select committee on behalf of US newspapers including The Boston Globe, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. It says: “Leading US newspapers are actively considering abandoning the supply of the 200-odd copies they make available for sale in London — mainly to Americans who want full details of their local news and sport.
“They do not make profits out of these minimal and casual sales and they can no longer risk losing millions of dollars in a libel action which they would never face under US law.
“Does the UK really want to be seen as the only country in Europe — indeed in the world — where important US papers cannot be obtained in print form?”
David McGraw, attorney for The New York Times, Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune, said: “What the memorandum was trying to say is that the American media generally may be tempted to get out if libel suits proliferate.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thelastcrusade.org ...
The UK is a socialist hellhole.
I was in London recently, and it was a Turd World cesspool of foul smelling Islamists. Absolutely disgusting down by the Eye on the Thames. The criminals run rampant, unfettered by the ridiculously incompetent police.
That isn’t the point.
American citizens are being sued for libel, by Saudis, under British law , and only New York and California refuse to recognize the British decisions.
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