Thoughts on Lord Lester's Defamation Bill

Lord Lester recently introduced a bill on libel reform to the House of Lords. This is to have its Second Reading on Friday. An explanatory note was made available a couple of weeks ago.

The Bill focuses on revising the substantive law. It does little on the issue of libel procedure, and nothing on the reform of costs. Together with Alastair Mullis, I've penned a critical piece that can be found on the Inforrm blog. We hope to see a longer version of the paper (which is currently available in draft) appear in Communications Law later this year. In short, we see the Bill as the proverbial curate's egg. It is a strong and positive effort, but we hold real concerns over a number of the proposed revisions and conclude overall that it is too slanted in favour of freedom of expression.