US Court Ruling: How Will it Impact Coverage of Terrorism?

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld wrote a book entitled "Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed - And How to Stop it." And even though the book was not written in England, nor published in England, nor sold in England, she was sued in England by the Saudis, and ordered to pay fines to the the equivalence of approximately $225,000.00.

"The UK is infamous for its libel laws, which do not even begin to conform to US legal or constitutional principles. Yet an extremely important battle involving the UK is now taking place in New York State, which could have major ramifications for Americans’ free speech rights."

You can see a short 8 minute video about it here:


Adrian Morgan writes more about this and gives us a little Background to UK Libel Law:

Current UK Libel Law is based upon the Libel Act of 1819, which includes clauses against "blasphemous libel" which have not been repealed (the last trials for blasphemy took place in 1929 and 1979). Amendments to the law have been made, importantly in 1988 and 1952. In a move originally designed to assist "ordinary" men and women to prosecute newspapers, the Defamation Act 1996 was introduced.

Read on.