14 August 2008

British Libel Laws Violate Human Rights - UN

Ha!

The British libel laws have come under attack from the United Nations committee on human rights for discouraging coverage of matters of major public interest. The use of the Official Secrets Act to deter government employees from raising important issues has also been criticised.

The intervention by the UN comes in the wake of international disquiet over the use of British courts for "libel tourism", whereby wealthy plaintiffs can sue in the high court in London over articles that would not warrant an action in their own country.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Although to me such criticism would possess more authority if the UN's commitment to secular human rights wasn't being steadily eroded by reactionary theistic forces.

Glyn Moody said...

Indeed. But any port in a storm....