United Kingdom
Mick Hume
The Times
Free speech is but an empty phrase in Britain, said Mick Hume in the London Times. Our libel laws, some of the most “atrocious, unjust pieces of legislation on our statute books,” allow an elected politician to sue a newspaper anytime he feels his reputation has been damaged—even if the allegations are true. In the latest travesty of justice, Tommy Sheridan, member of the Scottish Parliament and former head of the Scottish Socialists, won 200,000 pounds from the News of the World. The tabloid ran a well-documented series exposing Sheridan as “a spanking swinger” who had an affair with a call girl and participated in drug-fueled orgies. No fewer than 18 witnesses, three of them members of the Scottish Parliament, testified that the charges were substantially true. Witness after witness entertained the court with details of Sheridan’s sex romps. Sheridan didn’t even have proper lawyers to argue his case; he sacked his legal team and defended himself. Yet he prevailed, because our laws presume the press is guilty until it proves itself innocent. This is not the case in the U.S. While it’s fashionable these days “to bash American tyranny,” we have to concede that when it comes to open criticism of government officials, the U.S. really is the land of the free.
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