The most wide-ranging review of defamation law in England and Wales for more than a century could help Britain lose its reputation as the worst place in the world for a journalist or publisher to face a civil defamation action.
The draft Defamation Bill is currently out to consultation. It doesn’t tackle the “ransom factor” caused by the huge fees charged by claimant lawyers and it doesn’t offer protection for stories about corporations.
But it does provide new statutory defences for true stories and responsible journalism in the public interest and it also seeks to impose a single-publication rule on web stories.
Click on the links below for all Press Gazette’s coverage of the bill, reaction to it and what it means.
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