Webscrubbing in Wikileaks Libel Row November 13, 2008
Posted by Joanne KY Teoh in News.Tags: Index on Censorship, New Statesman, Wikileaks
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Here’s an interesting read about a spat in Index on Censorship, Britain’s leading organisation promoting freedom of expression.
The New Statesman has removed a blog post caught between threats from an Iraqi billionaire and Web whistleblower site, Wikileaks. The site says the move would defame Wikileaks by implying its content was inaccurate. Wikileaks also claims news organisations were pressured to remove the offending articles.
Wikinews has confirmed that at least some of the articles involved definitely previously existed but have now been removed, including from newspapers that usually keep all of their articles online.
So does it mean that if a certain book contains inaccuracies, and a reviewer gave the book a good review, the publisher can now sue on the grounds that the reviewer has “defamed their professionalism” by offering a contrary opinion? Or if someone writes inaccuracies about another person (whether libellous or not), will this person risk being sued simply for daring to put the record straight publicly?
Related read:
Eight stories on Obama linked billionaire Nadhmi Auchi censored from the Guardian, Observer, Telegraph and New Statesman
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