The Daily Mail has been forced to print a formal apology to Harry Potter author JK Rowling and pay out a “substantial” sum in damages over it printed about her as a single mother.
PC Toby Roland, the police officer at the centre of the “plebgate” scandal, is to sue Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell for libel over the incident.
Britain has had a free press for 300 years, and whilst illegal activity at newspapers, such as phone hacking, should be prosecuted under the law, that is not a reason to limit such a basic right as freedom of the press.
London has long held the embarrassing title of the “libel capital of the world”, but that is now soon to change after peers in the Lords voted to pass the Defamation Bill following a three year campaign by Liberal Democrat peers Lord McNally and Lord Lester.
As the Defamation Bill was edging towards being passed, Lords including Labour’s David Puttnam have added an amendment that attaches ideas from the Leveson Report on media regulation, which may have stalled the bill for good.