Defamation

[Laura Creighton]

In a message of Thu, 22 Oct 2015 11:33:13 +0100, Oscar Benjamin writes:
>I have a feeling that something may have changed recently but
>certainly until a few years ago we used to have lots of cases of
>"libel tourism" in the UK. This is where someone decides to bring a
>libel case which has nothing to do with the UK before the UK courts
>because libel law here is steeped in favour of the litigant. UK law
>requires the case to have a connection to the UK but the courts were
>apparently prepared to accept very tenuous connections (presumably
>because the whole business could function as an "export" bringing
>loads of money to all the lawyers involved). AFAIK these cases usually
>concerned foreign newspaper websites rather than something like the
>archive here though.

Very interesting.  Any prominent court decisions that could be scaring
them off?  One thing to recall is that 'who/what can be defamed' 
varies a lot.  In Sweden you cannot defame a corporation.  The
defamation regulations in the Penal Code only apply to private
individuals.  If you cannot bleed, you cannot be defamed.  In certain
situations the Swedish Marketing Act may be used to stop defamation of
a corporate entity -- if a rival has, without basis, tainted a rival's
reputation -- but this sort of protection is limited.  This makes
Sweden an attractive place to discuss Mosanto, and their evil
practices, even though, like a lot of places Sweden's defamation
law does not have a clause saying roughly 'if it is true, it isn't
defamation'.  Just 'intent to villify' is enough.  

Laura