Protecting the Right to Express an Opinion without Fear of a Libel Suit

Abstract

When large corporations and business, the rich and the powerful forum shop for the easiest courts in which to bring an oppressive libel action and find this is inter alia in the High Court in England and Wales then – in my view – the law needs urgent reform. Indeed, there is a keen libel reform movement afoot and I admit I am proud to be a signatory to this end. There is a need for serious and fundamental rethinking of the libel laws in England to prevent them from becoming a tool to stifle unwanted views and opinions because they could damage a product or a business even when the allegedly libellous claims are that the product or treatments may be demonstrated to be flawed or even quite useless. The highly publicized libel suit brought against Dr Simon Singh by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) has galvanized support for the right to express freely honestly held scientific and medical views and opinions without fear of legal harrassment and libel suits against individuals who only sought to protect patients and consumers. The libel suit against Dr Singh resulted from the publication of an article in The Guardian newspaper (significantly, Dr Singh was singled out as an individual and The Guardian was not joined in the libel suit) in which he wrote: “ ... The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying even though there is not a jot of evidence. This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments ... ”