p2pnet.net News:- Journalists can publish allegations about public figures if their reporting is responsible and in the public interest, says Britain’s highest court in what will become a corner-stone decision.

The Law Lords’ unanimous ruling on Jameel v Wall Street Journal Europe signals a huge shift in British law, “and significantly improves journalists’ chances of winning libel cases in a court system that until now has been stacked against them,” says The New York Times, going on:

“English judges have traditionally been so sympathetic to libel plaintiffs that many people from abroad have sued in English courts – even if the publications in question have tiny circulations here – because they have had a much better chance of winning here than at home.”

The same is said of Canada, long a favoured mart for foreign litigation shoppers and where p2pnet is currently being sued for alleged defamation by Sharman Networks’ Nikki Hemming, ceo of the Australian Kazaa p2p file sharing application.

Canada’s libel laws are, “currently the most outdated and repressive in the English speaking world,” says well-known media lawyer and freedom of speech supporter Dan Burnett, who’s representing p2pnet publisher, Jon Newton.

Britain had a similar reputation but this new UK decision, “will lead to a greater robustness and willingness to tackle serious stories, which is what the judges said they wanted,” the NYT has Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, saying.

“Until now, he said in an interview, newspapers have had to police themselves to the point where ’stories weren’t getting in the paper or were being neutered by clever lawyers who knew how to play the game.’

Saudi Arabian Yousef Jameel sued Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, in London, but, “The Court of Appeal threw out the libel action against the online publication, saying that only five people in England had read the allegedly defamatory item,” said The Times Online.

Jameel appealed, “in a case that could lead to new guidelines on when publishers can rely on the so-called Reynolds defence, a defence of ‘public interest’ or qualified privilege”.

“The article said at the request of the United States, Saudi Arabia was monitoring bank accounts of prominent Saudi businesses and individuals to trace whether they were being used, possibly unwittingly, to siphon money to terrorist groups.”

But in a “ringing rebuke to the lower court judge’s conclusion that the article was not in the public interest, in part because it flouted an agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia to keep the monitoring program secret,” Lord Hoffmann declared it to be “a serious contribution in measured tone to a subject of very considerable importance,” says the NYT, and Lord Scott of Foscote defended the right of news organizations to publish material deemed private by the government.

The story also quotes WSJ general counsel Stuart Karle as saying, “The history of English libel law was that essentially no decision was final in a newsroom until a judge, several years later, agreed with you.

“Going forward, this decision means that if you’re a quality news organization you can fully and fairly cover the important issues of the day without this nagging problem of having a libel judge in London basically engage in an autopsy of every single thing you did and decide whether he agrees with your editorial judgment.”

In the pending Canadian case, p2pnet ran a story quoting an Associated Press article which in turn referred to the infamous Kazaa trial in Australia.

Sharman Networks was being sued by the Big Four record labels because, they claimed, its Kazaa p2p application facilitated file sharing.

Ironically, because of the spyware and other malware it carries, Kazaa is equally reviled by the same p2p community it purports to serve, and because it features strongly in lawsuits brought by the Big Four’s RIAA against men, women and even young children said to have shared copyrighted music with each other online.

Sharman has since settled with the labels and among other things, is now attempting to get the corporate cartels to use DRM software touted by Kevin Bermeister, who runs Brilliant Digital entertainment, an associated company.

“The suit, launched by Sharman Networks’ Nikki Hemming, has attracted considerable attention because of the parties involved (Sharman Networks is the owner of Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file sharing service that last week agreed to pay the entertainment industry more than $100 million to settle ongoing litigation) and because it highlights the vulnerability of thousands of Canadians to defamation lawsuits merely for providing access to other people’s comments,” said Dr Michael Geist, Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, in a BBC article.

“Both Sharman Networks and Hemming sued P2Pnet last spring, claiming that an article and accompanying comments posted by readers of the site were libelous. Jon Newton, the owner of the site, has vigorously disputed the suit, pointing to the need to protect free speech and to ensure that defamation laws cannot be used as swords to create an online chill.

“Sharman Networks recently dropped its claim, however the Hemming suit continues.

“The case places the spotlight on the liability of Internet intermediaries. The importance of the issue extends well beyond just Internet service providers – corporate websites that allow for user feedback, education websites featuring chatrooms, or even individual bloggers who permit comments face the prospect of demands to remove content that is alleged to violate the law.”

Newton has elected for a trial by jury, but no date has yet been set.

(Thanks, Rob)

[FROM:- p2pnet.ca]

Also See:
The New York Times – High Court in Britain Loosens Strict Libel Law, October 12, 2006
outdated and repressive – p2pnet’s Toronto trip, August 8, 2006
The Times Online – Law lords to rule on internet defamation, June 26, 2006
DRM software – Kazaa owner’s DRM plan, August 4, 2006
BBC – Free speech, libel and the internet age, July 31, 2006

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win ~Mahatma Ghandi

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