LIBEL TOURISM BECOMES THE NEW HEADACHE IN GLOBALISED MEDIA
January 21st 2008 11:16
The web has certainly globalised publishing and this has brought new legal headaches to publishers as potential litigants go ‘shopping’ for the best country in which to take their case to court.
This phenomenon has become known as libel tourism and Oslo-based journalist Kristine Lowe’s media blog gives an interesting insight into the trend.
Lowe said, “'Libel tourism is a threat to all web publishers, and something we'll se a lot more of in times to come'
She writes, “'It's the dark side of internet and globalisation that nobody likes to talk about,’ said David Carr, a London-based lawyer who's assisted several bloggers with libel issues, when I asked him about the peculiar case of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing who has sued Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet for libel in London.
“Not that Falbert didn't think the paper had a good case, but the cost of fighting a libel case in Britain is staggering. Falbert estimated it would cost
four to five times as much as in Denmark. His paper stands accused of libelling Kaupthing in England when they translated several articles about the Icelandic economy to English and published them online.
“Kaupthing's lawyers argue that this means the 'offence' – they claim the articles are highly libellous – took place in England. ‘It's frightening if you can be sued in any country in the world if you write in English, then we could just as well be sued in Australia,’ said Falbert. But that is exactly the case said Carr.
“’According to law, a statement is libellous where it is read. This is the downside of the internet's globalisation of information that nobody likes to think about. When something appears on the web, it appears all over the world: you could potentially face libel suits all over the world.
Lowe said UK libel law reverts the burden of proof, which is extremely useful if you want to threaten someone. UK libel law could easily be spread all over the world and become the world's libel law by default, said Carr, adding that just hiring a libel lawyer is very expensive, and something only the very rich can afford
“Jon Wessel-Aas, a lawyer for Norway's public broadcaster NRK told me that the current situation, where it's unclear which countries' laws applies to where, effectively serves to restrict freedom of speech. Libel tourism' is also a problem for broadcasters whose broadcasts can be picked up in other countries than where they broadcast.”
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