Pressure on the government to reform the domestic libel law intensified last week after American legislators told Congress that cases heard in London were causing “concrete and profound harm” to the American people.
The Guardian has learned both the Ministry of Justice and the parliamentary committee on media, culture and sport are planning consultations on libel law reforms, as the US takes steps to protect Americans from the English courts.
Earlier this month, an American congressional committee singled out “ridiculous lawsuits” permitted in London and heard that “foreign individuals are operating a scheme to intimidate authors and publishers”.
Called by US senators Peter King, Arlen Specter and Joseph Lieberman, the committee heard that among the effects of English libel law was the suppression of information critical to American national security.
“Libel tourism threatens not only Americans’ first amendment freedom of speech but also their ability to inform the general public about existential threats, namely the identity of terrorists and their financial supporters,” Senator King told the hearing. “In many of these cases, journalists are trying to write on topics of national and homeland security.”
Congress also heard that in addition to the use of English courts to silence allegations in the American press of links between powerful financiers and terrorist organisations, a growing number of international celebrities and businessmen were also bringing cases in London.
“England has become the favourite destination of libel tourists from around the world, especially wealthy tourists from countries whose own laws are downright hostile to free speech,” Congressman Steve Cohen said.
The senators have already proposed a bill, supported by a coalition of American groups and the media, including the New York Times and Washington Post, which would allow US judges to block libel judgments from the high court deemed incompatible with the US constitution.
The US hearings come as MPs place growing pressure on parliament to reform the UK’s libel laws. “It is a moment of monstrous shame for British freedom of expression traditions that the US Congress has to protect its writers, intellectuals and journals from British judges,” said Dennis MacShane, the Labour MP for Rotherham who recently led a debate on libel tourism in the of Common.
The controversy surrounding English libel law is the requirement that authors of defamatory statements must prove the statement is true.
By contrast, in the US, statements are presumed to be true unless the person bringing the claim can show it was false, there was “actual malice” or that the falsehood was intentional.