EDITOR’S NOTE: Ethiopian Review is one of the victims of the U.K.’s anti-press freedom law that the new prime minister is trying to abolish. (See here).
The British government is, at last, moving to reform the country’s notorious libel law, which has long made London a magnet for frivolous lawsuits. The reform proposal presented to Parliament last week by Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, is far from perfect but represents a reasonable first effort to change a law regarded as so unfair that it has been condemned by the United Nations. Last summer, President Obama signed a bill blocking enforcement of British libel judgments in American courts.
Under British libel law, a defendant is guilty until proved innocent. A plaintiff does not have to show damage to his reputation. Further, under the 1849 Duke of Brunswick rule, each individual newspaper sale — or hit on a Web site — counts as a new publication and thus another libel. The law also treats opinion, however measured, just as it treats tabloid gossip until a defendant convinces a court it should be accepted as fair comment.
As a result, London has become, in effect, a center of libel tourism, and the Royal Courts of Justice favored tribunal for what a House of Commons report called “blatantly inappropriate cases, involving foreigners suing foreigners.”
The new American law — the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act — bars American courts from recognizing defamation judgments by foreign courts if they are inconsistent with First Amendment protections. But it is no way an answer to problems of British libel law itself.
Mr. Clarke introduced the bill with lofty rhetoric. “The right to freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our Constitution,” he said. “It is essential to the health of our democracy that people should be free to debate issues and challenge authority.”
The bill includes a requirement that statements must cause the plaintiff “substantial harm” in order to be considered defamatory. The bill would allow defendants to claim “responsible publication on matters of public interest” as an argument in their favor. It does away with multiple libels and reduces London’s attractiveness as a lawsuit destination by requiring plaintiffs to prove that England or Wales is “clearly the most appropriate place” to sue someone who doesn’t live in Europe.
The proposed barrier against jurisdiction is significant and a welcome change. In most other respects, the bill is not nearly as protective of speech as American law, and the burden remains on the defendant. Still, the bill has the potential to bury London’s deserved reputation as the world’s libel capital. It deserves the measured praise it is drawing.
A member of Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, Mr Thilo Hoppe, has asked his government to review its policy toward Ethiopia. The following is the statement he released:
Development cooperation with Ethiopia should be reviewed
Thilo Hoppe, Member of the German Bundestag, has issued the following statement on the human-
rights situation in Ethiopia:
It is not only in the Arab world that the voices of those who are no longer willing to accept a lack of democracy and a disregard for human rights are growing louder; this is also happening in Ethiopia.
The German Bundestag’s Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development met with opposition politicians and human-rights activists from Ethiopia, who reported on the suppression of protests in Addis Ababa and the imprisonment of journalists, politicians and NGO representatives critical of the regime.
The Federal Government should follow up on these reports and also raise the critical human-rights situation in negotiations with Ethiopia on development cooperation.
Development cooperation with the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi should be reviewed.
The review must examine what kind of assistance reaches the poorest of the poor and fosters sustainable development – and what forms of cooperation may be misused by the government and may even hinder democratic development. It must be made clear to the Ethiopian government that, in Germany’s view, development cooperation cannot be separated from the realization of human rights.
Thilo Hoppe
Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages
Stv. Vorsitzender des Ausschusses für wirtschaftliche
Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung
E-Mail: [email protected]
SYRIA (BBC) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad later ordered the release of everyone arrested during the “recent events”, state media said.
Assad’s regime have also pledged to introduce reforms to meet the demands of protesters, after days of violence in the southern city of Deraa, promised to study the need for lifting the state of emergency, in place since 1963, and bring to trial those suspected of killing several protesters in Deraa.
Presidential spokeswoman Bouthaina Shaaban blamed outside agitators for whipping up trouble, and denied that the government had ordered security forces to open fire on protesters.
But she said this “did not mean mistakes had not been made”.
“We should not confuse the behaviour of an individual, and the desire and determination of President Bashar al-Assad to move Syria to more prosperity,” she told a news conference in Damascus.
Relaxing restrictions?
A committee would be set up to talk to “our brothers in Deraa” and bring to justice those responsible for killing protesters, Ms Shaaban said.
She also said the government would raise workers’ wages, introduce health reforms, allow more political parties to compete in elections, relax media restrictions and establish a new mechanism for fighting corruption.
Ms Shaaban announced a similar package of reforms in 2005, but critics say her pledges were never enacted.
Opposition groups reacted to the news conference immediately, telling Reuters news agency that the Deraa committee would do nothing to meet the aspirations of the people.
Reuters reported that dissidents in Syria and in exile dismissed the reforms, calling for the immediate scrapping of the state of emergency and freeing of thousands of political prisoners.
Abdul-Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian Human Rights League, later said authorities had released several activists including prominent journalist Mazen Darwish and writer Louay Husein.
Ms Shaaban accused international media, including the BBC and CNN, of exaggerating the crackdown on the protesters.
Estimates vary as to how many people were killed in Wednesday’s unrest.
Some reports quoting witnesses and activists have put the figure as high as 100; others have claimed about 15 people were killed.
The government said 10 people had died.
Security forces opened fired on crowds three times in Deraa on Wednesday, activists and witnesses said.
The first clashes took place in the early hours outside a mosque. Later, witnesses said crowds at a funeral for those who were killed were themselves fired on.
President Assad succeeded his father in 2000 and has tolerated little dissent.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the country’s top general are hashing out a political settlement in which both men would resign from their positions within days in favor of a civilian-led transitional government, according to three people familiar with the situation.
The outlines of that peaceful transition emerged amid rising tension over the standoff between the President Saleh and Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who earlier this week broke ranks and declared his support for the array of protesters demanding that the president step down immediately.
Opposing tanks from units loyal to Mr. Saleh and to Gen. Ahmar have faced off in the streets of San’a all week and tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators continued their vigil in the capital’s Change Square. … [continue reading]
A sign of the government’s growing unease has been a partial resumption of jamming of VOA language service broadcasts to Ethiopia. The broadcasts are often jammed before Ethiopia’s elections, but the jamming stops after the voting. … [continue reading]
Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi is going after officials and members of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) with a vengeance these days. So far over 150 officials and hundreds of members have been thrown in jail charged with corruption.
Ethiopian Review has interviewed Col. Abebe Geresu about the mass purging inside OPDO.
OPDO is one of the five parties that make up the the TPLF-dominated ruling coalition, Ethiopian People’s Democratic Front (EPRDF).
Col. Abebe left the current regime 2 years ago along with Gen. Kemal Gelchu and 600 other high- and mid-ranking officers mostly from OPDO.
