[Libs-Or] Fwd: [alacoun] Letter on Libel Tourism

[Diedre Conkling]

FYI


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Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 16:47:48 -0400
From: "Emily Sheketoff" <esheketoff at alawash.org>
To: <alacoun at ala.org>
Subject: [alacoun] Letter on Libel Tourism

July 30, 2008





Honorable Charles E. Grassley

United States Senate

Committee on the Judiciary

135 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC  20510



Dear Senator Grassley:



The American Library Association (ALA) supports S. 2977, the "Free
Speech Protection Act of 2008", and asks you to cosponsor and support
this important piece of legislation as a member of the Committee on the
Judiciary.  The "findings" in S. 2977 well outline how foreign courts
are attempting to strip First Amendment rights of American authors,
publishers, academics and others who publish, and utter ideas, opinion,
research and criticisms.  ALA has been following the issue of "libel
tourism" and welcomes this legislation offering appropriate United
States legal venues for victims of foreign defamation litigation.



ALA is concerned that foreign "libel" lawsuits threaten authors and
publishers and United States freedoms of speech and the press.  Yet,
through its chilling effect, such litigation also denies the American
people the right to read and to access information - another inherent
First Amendment right essential to our democratic form of government.
The notable cases of authors Rachel Ehrenfeld, Mark Steyn and Joseph A.
Massad, against whom lawsuits were brought before courts in Great
Britain, where the burden of proof of libel and defamation is much lower
than in our country, demonstrate that "venue shopping" is no fiction.
There are serious legal, financial and creative threats to authors and
others who should be appropriately protected under our First Amendment.



This bill is carefully and comprehensively crafted and there is a need
and urgency to pass S. 2977 during this congressional session. We
support the proposal to provide a domestic legal option for bringing
action by an aggrieved author and others caught up in these foreign
lawsuits.  This option would protect the rights of those against whom a
"lawsuit for defamation is brought in a foreign country on the basis of
the content of any writing, utterance, or other speech by that person
that has been published, uttered, or otherwise disseminated in the
United States may bring an action in a U.S. district court against any
person who, or entity which, brought the foreign suit, if the writing,
utterance, or other speech at issue in the foreign lawsuit does not
constitute defamation under U.S. law."  The proposal is realistic and
provides a domestic alternative to fight "libel tourism" - really a form
of "libel terrorism."









2-



We stand ready to work with you on the "Free Speech Protection Act of
2008" and ask that you join Senators Specter and Lieberman in
cosponsoring this important bill.  It is an important and needed
proposal that offers appropriate United States legal recourse for the
authors and publishers who are victims of foreign libel litigation.



Sincerely yours,







Lynne E. Bradley, Director

Government Relations













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--
Diedre Conkling

 Lincoln County Library District
 P.O. Box 2027, Newport, OR  97365
 Phone & Fax:  541-265-3066
 http://lcld.library-blogs.net/
 Work:  diedre at beachbooks.org
 Home:  diedrec at charter.net
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