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Anonymous
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 Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:24 pm Post subject: Chilling Free Speech |
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Here is an excerpt from an Op-Ed I had in Friday's Washington Times, on the subject of libel tourism:
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The U.S. media has started to notice Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz's use of British libel laws to silence allegations that he funded al Qaeda. Even the venerable New York Times has featured an essay on the subject, plus an Op-Ed urging Congress to prevent U.S. courts from enforcing foreign libel judgments. While this would be a worthwhile achievement, most commentators have missed the point that we may have already lost the battle. More than 30 publications and authors have already given in to the billionaire. Since September 11, Mr. Mahfouz has exploited the British legal system, where libel laws favor the plaintiff, to systematically sue anyone alleging that he financed terrorism. He has also used the threat of such suits to intimidate his critics.
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Read the article in its entirety.
To clarify a few questions I've had regarding the Wall Street Journal: The allegations the WSJ retracted dealt with Mahfouz's purported family relationship to Osama bin Laden, which Mahfouz consistently denies. In my opinion, this is a significant, substantive claim, especially in light of the role family connections play in Arab society. To the best of my knowledge, the WSJ and others simply retracted the claim without further research. This falls into the pattern, or perhaps set the pattern, of giving in to intimidation rather than following the facts wherever they go.
To the WSJ's (actually the WSJ Europe's) credit, they fought and recently won an appeal in Britain stemming from a suit filed by the Abdullatif Jamil Group. This victory has, as written elsewhere, "gained some small measure of protection for journalists and writers in the UK." This was not a case where Mahfouz sued, however, and the chilling effect of his libel tourism is very real.
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