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Scientists and ID agree: UK libel laws suck
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Who says creationists and scientists disagree on everything?
I have been wanting to get to the bottom of why a New Scientist story on "How to Spot a Hidden Religious Agenda" was pulled, and who brought legal action against the magazine.
The most likely culprit is James Le Fanu, mostly due to the fact that the only other person named is Denyse O'Leary, who has stated flatly in the most certain of terms that it was not her.
ID proponent and not-a-creationist O'Leary does some probing herself about the story, but has no problem with the article being published, and is as mystified as anyone as to what possible legality could hold up the story. (Watch it be copyright infringement over the font -- whoops!)
Although the entire post seems to be a response to my post, it appears we are both agreed on something: UK Libel Law, regardless of the cause of the suit, is in desperate need of reform. If you ever catch yourself thinking about how enlighted the Europeans seem to be in areas where Americans seem particularly uptight, just remember the libel laws, which have led to absurd suits against Dan Brown.
The ease at which people can take down offensive article anonymously has made the UK the "world's exporter of defamation":
Plenty of print and website editors capitulate daily to the threat of libel by not publishing a piece or removing material from a website. Many of these threats are unjustified. So where exactly is the balance between freedom of speech and protection from defamation for internet service providers and publishers?
The Guardian says it is a threat to investigative journalism. With UK law, a restaurant can get a paper to pull down a bad review and tie it up in court indefinitely, and bankrupt the defendant without ever winning. Papers in financial trouble will avoid risking writing anything that might lead to legal trouble, no matter how unfounded.
It has led to what Mark Stephens referred to as "libel tourism". For example, Roman Polanski, who fled the country when he was tried for sex with an underaged girl, sued Vanity Fair, a US paper, in UK courts, via a satellite link from France.
So UK libel law also attempts to bring the rest of the world down to the lowest common denominator -- them.
The best thing to do in such cases, is to link to those stories when legal action is taken against them, so that they get more readers than they ever would have when these cowards strike at stories from behind the scenes.
(Update: We have been contacted by Le Fanu, and will update you shortly -- I removed the paragraph saying we weren't contacted.)
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