The British government has announced its plans to overhaul libel law to make it harder for foreigners to initiate libel cases in the UK, and to start a project to protect investigative journalism, according to MediaGuardian.

The legal recommendations will be included in a libel reform bill to be introduced to parliament if Labor returns to power after the election. These recommendations build on the work of a libel working group the British Ministry of Justice established early this year. The working group's final product, a report on the state of libel in the UK that was released this week, calls for new libel laws to achieve a fair balance between protecting reputations and ensuring freedom of expression.
In addition to curbing libel tourism, the revisions will also prevent multiple libel cases to be filed based on repeat downloads of stories, a practice that became widespread with the advent of the Internet. Since a defamatory story could be downloaded multiple times, multiple libel lawsuits could be filed.

Current libel laws, according to Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, seem to be tilting towards the protection of reputations, and the balance needs to be redressed.

"The changes announced today, together with other steps already taken by the government, will redress this imbalance. Replacing the multiple publication rule will ensure that people cannot take court action every time the same article is downloaded, preventing costly and unnecessary legal actions and the uncertainty for publishers of open-ended liability."

The Justice Secretary also announced the government is considering whether a statutory public interest defense would help journalists and other groups who undertake investigative journalism projects, but are prevented from publishing their findings because of the threat of legal action. Reforms to the UK's strict libel laws would make it easier for journalists to publish more sensitive but important information on topics such as the potential risks of drug treatment. If this new bill passes, freedom of speech of the press in the UK will be significantly strengthened.

Last month, the CMS committee issued a report on Press Standards, Privacy, and Libel that amply discussed the need to reform libel law in the U.K. The report highlited the negative effects of libel tourism to the UK's reputation as a protector of freedom of speech and the urgent need to overhaul the law to curb that practice.

A host of organizations have joined in on the effort for libel law reform, such as the Libel Reform Campaign. This organization claims libel lawsuits in England and Wales are 140 times more costly than anywhere else in Europe. The twenty most expensive libel suits cost an average of over £700,000.

The chief executive of the UK's Publishers Association, Simon Juden, welcomed the reform on MediaGuardian, adding that organizations like the one he heads have been calling for reform for a long time and that the time for the overhaul has come.

"The government should legislate for clearer lines of defense, as publishers and writers are currently being stifled by laws which force them to prove why their works are not defamatory. Not enough credence is given to the fact that defendants may have believed they were acting in the public interest, or to the basic right to freely express opinions about organizations and individuals."

Sources: MediaGuardian