Kafka comes to the British courts

Melanie Phillips:

At long last, the issue of libel tourism has come out into the open. The Labour MP Denis MacShane instigated a debate in the House of Commons two days ago to draw attention to the fact that Britain, the cradle of free speech and political liberty, has become the epicentre of the attempt to shut down discussion of terrorism and other noxious activities which involve certain wealthy foreigners, who are taking advantage of Britain’s ferocious libel laws to silence all those who try to write about them. Remarkably, American legislatures are being forced to pass bills to stop British courts punishing American writers for publishing books and articles that may be freely read in the United States but about which foreigners with deep enough pockets can sue them in the British courts.

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