{"id":1196,"date":"2009-03-26T22:55:25","date_gmt":"2009-03-26T22:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.widmann.org.uk\/2009\/03\/26\/1196\/"},"modified":"2009-03-26T22:55:25","modified_gmt":"2009-03-26T22:55:25","slug":"libel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/libel\/","title":{"rendered":"Libel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thomashawk\/3268753091\/\" title=\"photo sharing\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3486\/3268753091_82eafc058a_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" style=\"border: solid 2px #000000;\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;\"><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thomashawk\/3268753091\/\">Summertown Sun Publishing Sucks!<\/a><br \/>\nOriginally uploaded by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/people\/thomashawk\/\">Thomas Hawk<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<p>There have been some really important articles recently about the escalating cost of libel cases in England, and the dire consequences it is having for free speech.<\/p>\n<p>Please read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/2009\/mar\/26\/libel-laws-press-freedom-newspapers\">this<\/a> (hat tip: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spectator.co.uk\/martinbright\/3476941\/the-guardian-and-libel.thtml\">The Bright Stuff<\/a>) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/world\/international\/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12903058\">this<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>As the latter article notes, &#8220;the cost of litigation is so high ($200,000 for starters, and $1m-plus once you get going) that they cannot afford to defend themselves. The plaintiffs often win by default, leaving their victims humiliated and massively in debt.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a disaster, pure and simple.  It needs to be changed.  Now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summertown Sun Publishing Sucks! Originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk There have been some really important articles recently about the escalating cost of libel cases in England, and the dire consequences it is having for free speech. Please read this (hat tip: The Bright Stuff) and this! As the latter article notes, &#8220;the cost of litigation is so high ($200,000 for starters, and $1m-plus once you get going) that they cannot afford to defend themselves. The plaintiffs often win by default, leaving their victims humiliated and massively in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,159,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-en","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}