Libel law reform Bill thrown into doubt
Tuesday 26 February 2013
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Plans to reform Britain's arcane libel laws have been thrown into doubt after the House of Lords last night approved amendments introduced to the Defamation Bill by the film producer Lord Puttnam.
The Bill, which has been three years in the making and had been intended to dispel the reputation of the High Court in London as the "libel capital of the world", faces being scrapped.
Lord Puttnam introduced changes to the legislation as a means of indicating the unhappiness in the Upper House at the failure of the Government to introduce proposals for press reform recommended by Lord Justice Leveson following his inquiry.
But the Labour peer's amendment went further than Leveson and included plans for publishers to face "exemplary damages" and be answerable to a press regulator with statutory underpinning and an appointments panel headed by the Lord Chief Justice.
The Defamation Bill returns to the House of Commons where Conservatives are determined to halt it in its present form.
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Man and woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder victim of Woolwich machete attack, named as Drummer Lee Rigby
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'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Horrific attack brings terror to London’s streets
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Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, the mother-of-two hailed as a hero for confronting Woolwich attackers, thought: 'better me than a child'
- 1 Man and woman arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder victim of Woolwich machete attack, named as Drummer Lee Rigby
- 2 'Sickening, deluded and unforgivable': Horrific attack brings terror to London’s streets
- 3 Grace Dent: I’m not sure how these people can avoid being called ‘bigots’. And the more ‘civilised’, the worse they are
- 4 Woolwich murder: They killed, then they performed - these men should be starved of our attention
- 5 Woolwich attack: The EDL will seek to exploit this evil crime for their own evil ends
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