Clampdown on libellous blogs – but bloggers likely to get lobby passes
The Government is to publish a green paper in the new year on the reform of the libel laws which will be seen in some quarters as an attempt to gag bloggers such as the Mole, Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale who have been getting under the skin of ministers.
John Prescott is among senior politicians who would happily strangle those bloggers who spread unsubstantiated gossip about him after his affair with Tracey Temple, his diary secretary, came to light in 2006. Now the justice minister Bridget Prentice has told MPs: "We will publish as soon as possible in the new year a consultation paper on defamation and the internet."
This has raised suspicions that the justice secretary, Jack Straw - no stranger to wild rumours in the blogosphere - is ready to clamp down on the excesses of e-journalism at Westminster.
Ironically, this comes at a time when, the Mole understands, the authorities at Westminster are looking more kindly at the increasing requests from online political commentators to be given lobby passes alongside their newspaper and broadcasting colleagues.
The Serjeant at Arms office has apparently been inundated with requests from bloggers such as Jonathan Isaby, late of the Daily Telegraph and now of ConservativeHome, and it’s become a major talking-point in the blogosphere.
After initial scepticism at Westminster, the view now seems to be that e-journalism is here to stay and these bloggers should have passes, even though the print journalists take a broadly sniffy attitude to the likes of the Mole, while being happy enough to follow his lead.
Back to the green paper. It is likely it will make it easier for people to sue for libel by slashing the disproportionate costs of legal action, possibly by establishing a small claims court for libel.
The bloggers have got some consolation, however. They won't be sent to the tower. Prentice said: "As part of the proposed consultation, we will also seek views on the abolition of criminal libel in respect of defamatory material."
THE MOLE: LIBEL LAWS
FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 19, 2008
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