New Christmas appeal by Libel Reform campaign
The Libel Reform Campaign has launched a new appeal for Christmas, with the catchy you-can-almost-sing-it title, ‘All We Want For Christmas Is Libel Reform‘.
The libel laws of England & Wales are, you will recall, in dire need of reform. They barely take account of hot-type printing presses, let alone the internet.
High costs allow rich people and multi-national corporations to bully doctors, scientists and investigative journalists into silence; while the same high costs mean that wealthy media barons can smear ordinary people with impunity. The ‘Reynolds Defence’ for responsible journalism is inadequate, and the distinction between ‘opinion’ and ‘fact’ is unclear.
On Liberal Conspiracy, we’ve covered several examples of people using libel to silence criticism.
Regular contributor Dave Osler had to fend off an unfounded libel action in 2010.
Blogger Vaughan Jones has been sued for libel after posting a review on Amazon.co.uk. The costs incurred by Dr Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh and Dr Peter Wilmshurst, forced to defend solid scientific opinions through the High Court, are well documented.
All three of the major political parties pledged libel reform in their manifestos; and the Ministry of Justice have produced a draft Bill, which parliament has scrutinised at length.
There is no good reason why Libel Reform should not be in the next Queen’s Speech. Let’s get this sorted now.
http://libelreform.org/one-click/
Two weeks to speak up for human rights in the UK
I attended an event run by the British Institute of Human Rights today, encouraging the charity and voluntary sector to submit to the UK’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations. Every country in the UN has its human rights record examined every four years, and the UK will be reviewed again in 2012.
The key message from the seminar was that the UPR process relies on the evidence submitted by NUGOs. However, during the last review in 2008 only 19 civil society organisations sent submissions to the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). This seems incredibly low to me.
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BBC ‘selectively editing’ riots footage [updated]
During Tuesday’s edition of Newsnight, hosted by Gavin Esler, one of the studio interviewees accused the BBC of selective editing.
The prgramme can be viewed online via the BBC iPlayer (available until 16th August). In a debate about why young people have joined the riots in London, student Yohanes Scarlett said:
First of all, I would like to say, earlier, during your newsclip here, you had a recording of a gentleman with a bandana across his face and sunglasses on, and I would like to point out right now right from the beginning that the BBC have cut out his original statement. I was there. He gave an original statement which he wanted the people to hear. It has been cut out, this is a misrepresentation.
Scarlett’s speech begins at about 15 mins 35 seconds on the iPlayer recording. The clip he referred to is at 7 mins 23 seconds.
Chairing the discussion, Gavin Esler immediately asked Yohanes Scarlett what the chap with the bandana said, but Scarlett said he couldn’t remember it by heart and was reluctant to paraphrase. He went to to say that the BBC should play the full clip. “Perhaps we will” replied Esler.
@Magic_Torch: @robertsharp59 @BBCNewsnight Just because they were accused it doesn’t mean it was true #justsaying
There is probably a simple reason why the interview was cut. Reporters have a strict time slot and the subject Liz MacKean was reporting on was very broad. However, it was an edit which a Newsnight interviewee – someone credible enough to be invited into the studio to talk specifically about the concerns of urban youths – thought was an unwarranted.
@Eastmad: @robertsharp59 @GavinEsler agreed – selective editing of people who you know don’t have much of a voice is egregious
Youths without a voice causing violence; youths causing violence because they have no polical voice. This context is important. This is not simply a case of a politician complaining about selective editing (which actually happens very rarely). Politicians have ample opportunity to clarify and expand upon what they say to broadcast journalists, and they are trained to talk in soundbites anyway. This is not true of the underclass, the submerged.
So fairly or unfairly, the BBC’s reporting has been called into question. If rebutting this criticism was in any way difficult, then maybe it would be appropriate for the BBC to shrug off Yohanes Scarlett’s comment, and the news cycle would move on. But in the age of YouTube and iPlayer, there is really no excuse for uploading Liz MacKean’s entire interview with the masked youth.
It only takes a few minutes, and will give those who want it a deeper insight in the psyche of those caused chaos on our streets.
Update 3:45pm, 11 Aug 2011
I’ve just received this response via e-mail from Newsnight’s Deputy Editor, Liz Gibbons:
With reference to your tweets about why we didn’t put the full interview and statement of the man who claimed to have some involvement with rioting on Newsnight on Tuesday night – it is standard televisual journalistic practice to choose clips from interviews in filmed pieces, rather than run interviews in full. This individual asked to make a statement to camera, but also agreed to do an interview in which our reporter was able to ask him some robust questions about why he thought it was justifiable to loot. I am sure you understand that it would be odd for the BBC to allow a statement from someone justifying criminal behaviour to be aired unchallenged, without us asking the individual some robust questions which the public would expect us to ask. We gave this individual no undertaking or promise of any kind that we would run his interview in full or that we would air his statement at all.
I have spoken to the reporter about the content of the statement that the individual made to camera and I am content that there was nothing he said in that pre-prepared statement that was not reflected in the subsequent interview exchange that was aired on the programme. Nor did he claim to represent any group, or organisation, or offer any insight beyond that which was reflected in the interview about why people were committing acts of violent disorder and criminality. You may have noted that Yohannes Scarlett who appeared in the studio, and was present when this interview was filmed, couldn’t actually recall what this individual even said in his pre-prepared statement.
I hope that allays your concerns.
Always link, even to your enemies
In my morning trawl through the Internet recently, I noticed two examples of a practice that has become mainstream: denying the object of your opprobrium a link.
First, the fascinating Brian Kellet writes this, in a fisk of a Liz Jones column about the NHS says:
I’m not going to link to the original story because I don’t want to send visitors to the rag that is the Daily Mail.
Double standards in the phone-hacking scandal
Let us note that the images featured on the front pages of many newspapers last week were those of the most iconic cases of recent years. Sarah Payne, hollyandjessica, Millie Dowler, Madeline McCann: the news-stands appeared to be some macabre Abduction Hall of Fame.
This is actually a dream come true for rivals of News of the World.
It is the invasion of privacy of these families that the rival newspapers are keen to report, because they too know that it is images of these children that sell.
Amnesty shows how ‘clicktivism’ can work too
Some good news: Eynulla Fatullayev has been released in Azerbaijan. I reported last month on the demonstrations I have attended on his behalf.
An immediate tweet discussion of the news caught my eye. From @dontgetfooled
Wow. So “clicktivism” can work after all?
Libel Reform, 190 years overdue
Happy Birthday to The Guardian, 190 years old today.
In its regular archive feature, the paper presents its first ever editorial, which features a demand for libel reform:
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What do these two kinds of patriotism tell us? #royalwedding #OBL
I found it impossible not to make the mental link between the celebrations in America, and the recent flag-waving down on The Mall. Both events have been obvious moments of unity for the respective countries.
Both events also mark symbolic endings to a particular period of national history.
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Why human rights for prisoners and even paedos matter
First they came for the prisoners.
A few weeks ago, MPs voted to ignore the European Court of Human Rights to keep a full ban on prisoners. Our Prime Minister put blatant populism above politics, declaring that “giving prisoners the vote makes me sick” (even if that means paying £143 million in compensation from the barren public purse).
Then they came for the paedophiles.
continue reading… »
The cowardly fudge behind the rhetoric of Control Orders
I was at the Nick Clegg speech earlier today. He took aim at Labour’s pretty poor record on civil liberties, suggesting that the previous governments were more systematic and less casual than prominent ex-Ministers would have us believe.
Although there were some fine words on Libel Reform and some interesting proposals on Freedom of Information, most of the discussion in the speech itself, and in questions afterwards, was on control orders and curfews.
continue reading… »
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