The UK is notorious for its libel laws that allow for libel tourism and which punish responsible journalism. It looks as this may change. The Guardian is reporting:
A draft defamation bill was subject to close scrutiny in the last parliamentary session but now appears as fully developed proposals in this year’s legislative agenda.
The bill is intended to abolish costly trials by jury in most libel cases, curb online defamation through a new notice and takedown procedure, reduce so-called “libel tourism” and make it more difficult for large corporations to sue newspapers.
Lord Mawhinney, chairman of the joint Commons and Lords committee on the draft defamation bill, said that current libel laws were “far too expensive, which is a barrier to all but the richest”.
In its response to the committee’s report, the government agreed to replace the test of “substantial harm” to reputation with a stricter test of “serious harm” that would have to be established in defamation cases.
“The bill will rebalance the law to ensure that people who have been defamed are able to protect their reputation, but that free speech and freedom of expression are not unjustifiably impeded by actual or threatened libel proceedings,” the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.
“It will ensure that the threat of libel proceedings is not used to frustrate robust scientific and academic debate, or to impede responsible investigative journalism.”
They’re not UK libel laws. They’re English libel laws (applicable in Wales, but not in Northern Ireland or Scotland).